7.7 Million Foreign Tourists Targeted to Visit Indonesia This Year

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has set itself the target of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals this year, a tourism official said.

"We are optimistic that the target will be achieved," Rita Sofia, promotion section chief of the Marketing Directorate for Java of the Tourism Ministry, said here on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition on Central Java tourism , Rita said that the target this year was higher than that of last year which was only seven million.

She said that the number of domestic tourists this year was also expected to increase to 237 million from 234 million in 2010. The tourism official said that actually the desire of the people to conduct touristic trips abroad could be directed to tourism sites at home.

"It’s just the right of people to go abroad but various kinds of local tourism promotions could at least attract them," she said.

Therefore, she said, her side was holding the exhibition in an effort to introduce local tourism sites through 14 stands from various travel bureaus which would offer domestic travel packages. 

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More than 55 Pct Singaporean Tourists Visit Riau Islands

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The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said that 55.71 pct of 133,620 foreign tourists visiting Riau Islands Province in March 2011 came from Singapore.

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Over 598,000 Tourists Visited Indonesia

Balinese Hindu worshipers walk during the Tawur Agung ritual ahead of "Nyepi", Balis Day of Silence and the Hindu New Year, at Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta March 4, 2011. Most Balinese Hindus practice self-reflection by staying home as they observe this quiet holiday. Nyepi falls on March 5, 2011. 

More than 598.1 thousand tourists visited Indonesia in March, up slightly by 0.64 percent from the same month last year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said.

"Compared with February 2011, the number of tourist arrivals in March 2011 rose 5.28 percent," BPS Chief Rusman Heriawan said here on Monday.