Govt needs Rp96b to restore Indonesia’s image as a tourist destination

The government will have to spend about Rp 96 billion (US$9.6million) to restore Indonesia's image as a tourist destination after it was damaged by last week's bomb blasts, a ministry official says.

"To recover our image as a tourist destination, the Culture and Tourism Ministry needs to run a campaign and allocate [additional] funds for its public relations department and for a road show," Edy Putra Irawadi, deputy to the coordinating minister for the economy, in charge of industry and trade, said Friday.

"The ministry has sent a proposal, but we will have to decide what to prioritize. It will depend on the finance minister. But I think the amount won't be far from the funding allocated to Bali [after the last blast], which was around Rp 96 billion," he said.

The House of Representatives' budget committee has allowed the government to widen this year's budget deficit to Rp 5.5 trillion, to factor in the expenses incurred as a result of the damage caused by the bombings.

On July 17, two bombs shook the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan business district in South Jakarta, killing nine people and injuring many others.