Overseas Arrivals to Jakarta on the Rise

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, April 04, 2010

The capital’s efforts to attract more international visitors appear to be paying off with data showing a steady increase in the number of arrivals.

According to recently released data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), 127,644 visitors from abroad came to the capital in February, a 3.71 percent increase from January and a 23.59 percent increase from the year-earlier period.

About 45 percent of the international visitors came from five Asian countries — Malaysia, China, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. Malaysia topped the list with 19,881 arrivals.

“Most of them are businessmen who came here for meetings,” said Arie Budiman, the head of Jakarta’s tourism office.

“However, it does not mean that all of them are coming for business purposes, they also come here for shopping or simply to enjoy Betawi cuisine,” Arie said.

More tourists were coming to enjoy the city’s Old Town as well, he said. “We are now trying to preserve the culture in the Old Town.”

Arie said Jakarta’s tourism office was seeking an additional Rp 1 billion ($107,470) in funding from the provincial government this year to revitalize the neighborhood.

This is on top of Rp 2 billion already allocated by the provincial government to the agency to host events and cover administration costs, he said.

However, Arie said tourism attractions and facilities in Jakarta were still not good enough to compete with other Southeast Asian capitals.

“We need to work harder to promote the capital as our competitors in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok already do,” he said.

We are going to increase the number of promotions to attract tourists, at least from the Southeast Asian region,” Arie said.

More brochures would be published, online promotion would be ramped up and Jakarta would look to host more festivals, he said.

Taman Fatahilah, Jakarta (Photo's: Yulian Firdaus)

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