RI launches 'Visit Indonesia 2008' in China

Esther Samboh, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Visit Indonesia 2008 campaign, with its theme "Celebrating 100 Years of National Awakening", was recently launched in Beijing.

The Indonesian Embassy in Beijing informed The Jakarta Post that the Embassy and Indonesian national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia jointly held an event at Awana restaurant in Beijing.

The event promoted golf, wedding and honeymoon tourist packages, among others, in cities such as Bali and Yogyakarta.

It also featured Indonesian traditional dances, cooking demonstrations of Indonesian food and tourism quizzes with prizes such as a free Beijing-Bali round-trip plane ticket.

Indonesian tourism films and a fashion show of Indonesian traditional clothing were also featured.

The event was opened by Garuda general manager for Beijing Pikri Ilham and was attended by diplomats from the Indonesian Embassy.

Garuda has set a goal of flying 22,000 passengers on the Beijing-Jakarta route in 2008, up from 21,650 last year, Pikri said as reported by Antara.

Garuda has prepared a number of programs in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to attract tourists to Indonesia, he added.

As many as 7 million tourists are expected to visit Indonesia in 2008, bringing in US$6.4 billion in foreign exchange. Some 100 events and cultural festivals are also expected to be held in the country this year.

The government has allocated $15 million for promoting tourism this year.

In 2007, 5.51 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, short of the 6 million target, but up from the 2006 total of 4.87 million.