Private sector blamed for RI’s minimal tourists

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/22/2010 7:05 PM

Indonesia blamed domestic travel agencies Friday for contributing to the country’s poor performance in netting international travelers.

The problem with domestic travel agencies was their inability to offer tour packages at international levels, focusing solely on the domestic market, Sapta Nirwandar, the Marketing Director General of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said in Jakarta.

The ministry targets to net 7 million international tourists in 2010, up from 6.4 million last year. This target is much smaller than the number of tourist arrivals in neighboring Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, which last year attracted 10 million, 15 million and 22 million visitors respectively.

Sapta failed to provide concrete plans to help domestic private players in the industry, such as hotels, travel agents and airlines to improve the tourism business mechanism abroad. (tsy/ipa).