Medan residents prefer to spend vacation overseas

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

More Medan residents spend their holidays overseas each year than foreign visitors come to the North Sumatra capital, the provincial tourism office has announced.

Office head Henry Hutabarat said Wednesday Medan residents spent tens of billions of rupiah overseas each year, while visitors from Europe vacationing in Medan only spent US$110 per person per day, while Asian tourists only spent $60 per person per day.

Henry said the money spent by Medan residents overseas was not only used for travel purposes but also to seek medical treatment.

"Generally, tourists from Medan use their overseas visits to seek medical treatment, thus spending quite a lot of money," Henry told The Jakarta Post.

Henry said that Malaysia and Singapore were the most preferred destinations by far, mainly due to their proximity and numerous quality hospitals, and also served as jumping-off points for trips to Europe and the United States.

In 2005, 167,000 Medan residents visited Penang, Malaysia, while only 70,000 Malaysian tourists visited Medan in the same year.

Henry said around 100,000 Medan residents visited Singapore in 2006, while only around 10,000 Singaporeans visited the province that year.

Henry said visitors from Europe usually spent their vacation in Bukit Lawang in Langkat regency and Lake Toba in Simalungun, while those from Asian countries often visited Brastagi in Karo regency as well as Lake Toba.

Based on data issued by the North Sumatra Tourism Office, 130,761 foreign visitors spent their holidays in the province in 2006, or an increase of 11.25 percent from the figure in 2005, dominated by European tourists from the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and France.

A Medan resident, Walman Sihaloho, 37, said he often visited overseas countries, especially Malaysia, because many tour agencies frequently offered cheap tour packages, citing as an example an agency that recently offered a package tour to Penang for four days with prices starting at Rp 1 million.

"It's dirt cheap, because for only Rp 1 million, we could enjoy a visit to Penang for four days," said Walman, a father of one.

Tourism director at the Malaysian consulate in Medan Noor Azman Samsudin said his country expected the arrival of 2 million visitors from Indonesia this year. He was optimistic the target could be reached.

Noor Azman said the target this year was higher than last years' 1.3 million visitors. He added that Indonesia was ranked third after Singapore and Thailand in terms of tourists visiting the country.