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Indonesia likely to miss target of 17m tourist arrivals
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The Wayang Jogja Night Carnival showcases a wayang orang (human puppet) troupe riding on floats to mark the anniversary of Yogyakarta in October. (The Jakarta Post/Tarko Sudiarno)
I
ndonesia is unlikely to hit its target of getting 17 million tourist arrivals this year because of a series of disasters the country experienced in 2018, according to Tourism Ministry official Judi Rifajantoro.
He said the arrivals totaled only 13.24 million in the first 10 months of 2018.
Judi was referring to earthquakes, tsunami and landslides in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara and Palu, Central Sulawesi, and to a recent plane crash near Jakarta that killed everyone on board.
“Disasters always affect the tourism sector. It is hard to achieve the target of 17 million arrivals,” Judi said as quoted by tempo.co on Wednesday.
He said he still hoped the arrivals in November and December would be consistent at 1.5 million each, although the figures in September and October were only 1.2 million and 2.9 million respectively, 5.74 percent lower than in the previous months.
However, the ministry still wants to welcome 20 million foreign tourists in 2019 with the hope that there would be no more barriers for the industry, Judi added.
Tourism Ministry spokesman Guntur Sakti said a number of programs and promotions had been prepared to reach the target of 20 million arrivals in 2019, including ones for cross-border tourists from Malaysia and Timor Leste.
“We will also carry out promotions through operators and agents in major tourist destinations like Thailand and Singapore,” he added. (bbn)
