Visit Indonesia Year 2008
Jun 20th, 2007, in Business & Economy, Travel, by PatungThe government is to hold a “Visit Indonesia Year” in 2008.
As part of the effort to improve visitor numbers, says the Jakarta Post, improvements will be made to basic infrastructure in some of the country’s top tourist destinations as part of “Visit Indonesia Year 2008”.
The official announcement of the campaign, the second that will be held by the country after an earlier one in 1992, will be made in July, and will begin a several months’ long promotion campaign, the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s director general of marketing, Thamrin B. Bachri, said on 12th June.
Throughout 2008, the country will stage 100 international-scale events and cultural festivals, with the “visit Indonesia” campaign being timed to coincide with the World Culture Forum 2008.
We have held meetings with the provincial administrations to outline our plans and ensure that their regions are ready for the events
Thamrin said.
The ministry, he said, was encouraging them to develop tourist attractions in their respective regions by improving facilities and access to the attractions.
In the first Visit Indonesia Year in 1992, the country boosted foreign tourist arrivals by about 20% to 3.1 million from 2.5 million in 1991.
Thamrin did not say how many visitors were expected to visit Indonesia during next year’s campaign.
In 2007 the ministry has set a target of attracting 6 million foreign tourists, who will generate around $5 billion in foreign exchange earnings, through its “tourism acceleration program”. Last year, foreign tourist arrivals were 4.8 million.
To support the acceleration program and prepare for 2008, the ministry has requested extra funding of 158 billion rupiah ($17 million) from the 2007 budget, which is currently under deliberation in the House of Representatives.
The original 2007 budget allocated 982 billion to the Tourism ministry.
Of the additional funding, the acceleration program, which includes overseas promotional campaigns and improvements to basic infrastructure, such as roads, and electricity and telephone access in tourist areas, will get most of the 158 billion rupiah.
The planned overseas promotional campaign includes advertising on international television channels, said Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik.
Advertisements on such TV channels are one of the most effective ways of attracting foreign tourists.
Other countries, such as Malaysia and Thailand, spent vast sums on such advertising, he said.
We will be out of sight of the rest of the world if we don’t take effective and immediate action to raise awareness among overseas tourists that Indonesia is a safe and attractive place to visit.
Malaysia is targeting 20 million foreign tourists this year through its “Visit Malaysia Year” campaign. The country hosted 17.5 million overseas tourists last year.
71 Comments on “Visit Indonesia Year 2008”
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Pakmantri says:
Tammy,
Ya, ha ha ………… 🙂You’ll find more info about Indonesian tourism in this site.
http://indahnesia.com/index.php.
regards.
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jackie says:
I went to Maroco this summer, and trust me it’s event worst than Indonesia in terms of culture, sight seeing, and people. People are so nasty over there, and they are very agressive when they sell stuffs (hawkers and local people love to trick you). Same moslem country, less freedom, but they sell more to tourists than us.
To think about it again, i rather go to Indonesia than to Maroco next time. I had a really great time in Maroc, really. But people are nicer in Indonesia. Just that they know how to sell better (and not to mention that they are closer to europe, thus cheaper to go there for european tourists).
For Tammy, try this to find indonesian tourism agenda:
http://www.my-indonesia.info/try to type tourism indonesia, visit Indonesia year 2008 in google, voilàthe result…
For dip or dimp (cannot remember your name), As far as i remember why Indonesia always do visit Indonesian year, a year behind malaysia, it is because the south east asian countries have some kind of agreement, and should have an accord with Visit South East Asian Year program… (this was the reason in 1991).
What Indonesia needs is actually to do more marketing, publicity. But hey, this is what they are doing now..It’s a shame that in Europe we are facing inflation and economy problems now.. don’t know if people would spend their money to a far country like Indonesia.
Don’t be too pesimistic guys….
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Jeremy Thorburn says:
I’ve just left Sumatra, and this is the first I’ve heard of “Visit Indonesia 2008”, I’ve been staying in Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, one of the main tourist destinations of Sumatra. If they are spending cash and improving infrastructure at tourist destinations, they are doing so in stealth mode. Its taken so long to revover the village from the flood, that it puts shame on the gov and all those who pocketed donated funds, instead of leaving it for victoms of the flood. The only thing tourists see when they go to Bukit Lawang, is a housing estate which puts shame on the gov. Children could have planned, built and organised this village better than the local gov has.
Tourists who used to visit for a week, are only staying 2 days. Why? Because tourism Indonesia is a complete joke, from landing in belawan, and arriving in Medan, tourists are at a total loss to know where they are or where to go, stay. They are ripped off at every turn.
Indonesia needs to do more than spend a few million dollars on tourism, it needs to look at itself and the people involved in tourism. Its an sham at the moment, just like the rest of the country. Sure the people are nice, friendly, but that’s not enough to entice people down from Thailand..
The real reason people are giving the finger to Indonesia, is because everyone goes from Thailand, to Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. 3 booming countries with so much to offer, in close proximity, and easy to get around. Malaysia is also suffering because of these relatively new destinations.Lets face it, Thailand is in the middle of tourism Asia, if you want the tourists, you need to drag them down from thailand. Most people aren’t going to make Indonesia their only destination, unless it’s Bali.
I think Indonesia has more to offer than all these other countries, but unless they sort their sh*t out, even I cant be bothered battling it out to get a few hundred Km in one of those death trap buses driven by a madman. And if I don’t like those buses, how the hell do you expect older people to put up with them. I want my family to come over, but like hell they will ever go on one of those buses, they will take one look at Medan, and curse me that they even came in the first place.
They’d be better off in India.
Sorry Indonesia, but you suck as a tourist destination.
I only come back because of my lovely girlfriend, but we are both happy to be going to NZ, where they get a few things right when it comes to tourism!
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Annie says:
As again we are just copying Malaysia, exactly Visit Malaysia Year 1991 was followed by Visit Indonesia Year 1992, and now, Visit Malaysia Year 2007 was followed by Visit Indonesia Year 2008.
I think Indonesia is not just copying Malaysia. Batik actually come from Indonesia, do you know that? And the Reog ponorogo that they tried to steal? And the Rasa Sayang song? So who’s copying now? Indonesia has so many cultures that not so many people know, beside Bali’s and Java’s. You’re all just jealous..
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Janma says:
The airport in jakarta is under water…… who can visit even? LOL
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Oigal says:
Btw, why there is nobody angry that our beautiful Borobudur was not selected as one of the world’s 7 wonders ? anyone knew the reasons
Maybe they couldn’t find it for the empty aqua bottles other rubbish strewn around.
Perhaps on interest our local government is having a reception for all expats to find out what they think of and what they know about local areas of interest. One of the ladies has been preparing a slide show of pictures this week of all the local tourist attractions with the rubbish and poor maintenance highlighted. Going to be some pretty embarrassed officials I think. Sad really easy to fix but the will always lacking
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Achmad Sudarsono says:
Dear All,
Oigal once again takes the opportunity to nitpick at Indonesia whilst failing to clean the trash in his own mind: prejudice, bigotry and illogical thinking. No doubt at the reception the Expats will say, “Dolly” at Surabaya, Stadium in Jakarta, and, yes, inevitably Blok M and Jl. Jaksa.
Oigal, the officials are ten steps ahead of you. Granted, they have an advantage – they’re sober. But the real exercise will be to further unmask the unbridled bigotry of some. The Javanese subtlety of their thought will be lost on a mind that thinks ale is “cleansing.”
I thank you, Friend.
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Another constructive comment from the troll..
I haven’t been to all those places you mention yet..correct me if I am wrong then..isn’t “Dolly” an Indonesian Brothel area… not many expats there from what I hear..same with Jl Jaksa..
Or are you just telling porky pies again
Thanks for sharing Assmad..diddums
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Oigal’s been sniffing bicycle seats again…but I do note he’s plugged in on Dolly and Jl. Jaksa. Good one, Oigsie, Go For Gold.
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K A N says:
Had emailed to many budget hotels and tour agents about booking rooms and island tour in Manado, Indonesia, but they never reply!! I gave up and had to go Manado with out a proper plan,much to my dismay! My trip is next week and am still sending mails to enquire about the budget hotels availability!!
Am not happy about this and tourism is poor in this part of Indonesia.How could tourism grows here without many people knowing how to handle emails and showing no response to interested tourists enquiry!!
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Pakmantri:
Thanks alot. Must be difficult to find time to search this site in between giving vaccine shots to people. I really appreciate it.
Several questions to everybody:
1. Why doesn’t this site come up when I googled ‘indonesia’? On the other hand, when I typed ‘malaysia’, the Malaysia Tourism official website appeared as number one in Google Search. Somebody must straight things up with Google!
2. Who choose the ridiculous name of ‘budpar’? People will try to find ‘indonesia’ or ‘indonesia tourism’ and noone would type ‘budpar’ Aduh! Is there any marketing brain in the ministry?
3. I don’t like the website personally. It’s more like a government’s newsletter. Why not simply copy Malaysia’s idea (I know, sad!). Their tourism website is so user friendly, so easy to find what we’re looking for in split seconds. When visiting ‘budpar’ website, I want to find out about, let’s say, Lake Toba, but where should I go? Doesn’t anyone understand that with millions of website, people only pay attention to one website in several seconds? If they couldn’t find what they’re looking for, they’d give up easily and try to find another one.
4. Just for fun I typed ‘indonesia’ again and found CIA site. Hilarious that they compare us to Texas. I know it’s nothing to do with our discussion. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html But I was bored trying to find out a descent, official government tourism website!