KUCHING: Indonesia expects to record 9.4 million foreign tourist arrivals this year compared to 8.7 million last year, said its Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Dr Mari Elka Pangestu.
She disclosed that her country earned some US$10 billion from the tourism industry last year.
“For this year, we expect to get US$10.5 to US$10.6 billion,” Dr Mari told The Borneo Post on the sidelines of the 17th Meeting of Asean Tourism Ministers and the 13th Meeting of Asean Plus Three (China, Japan and Republic of Korea) Tourism Ministers at a leading hotel here yesterday.
Mari said Indonesia planned to connect at least 88 major tourist destinations out of its 17,000 islands by next year.
“Currently, we have two well-visited areas, namely Jakarta and Bali, but we are also promoting other areas such as Lombok and Labuan Bajau, which we want to promote more.
“We also have specialised areas such as Wahat Tobi, Raja Empat, Derawan in Kalimantan, and other smaller and exotic places.”
Mari said currently, Indonesia was promoting 16 major destinations such as Bali, Jakarta, Flores, Wahat Tobi, Menado, Lake Toba in Sumatra and Tanjung Puting in Central Kalimantan, which is renowned for its Orangutan forest reserve.
She said more needed to be done to boost Indonesia’s tourism sector, especially in terms of air connectivity.
Meanwhile, Myanmar Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung disclosed that his country had very low foreign tourists’ arrivals due to its political situation, but he hoped that the meeting would promote his country so that more tourists would visit in future.
“We intend to be more open in our foreign policy so that more tourists will come and visit Myanmar. For that, we are expecting some three million tourists visiting my country this year.”