Indonesia

Long week end just over in Indonesia. During Thursday - Sunday, many domestic tourists visited many destinations in Indonesia. Kuta Beach, Bukittinggi, Ancol, Yogyakarta were full with domestic tourists who want to spend the holiday. Of course, not only those places that were visited by tourists. Bandung and Puncak maybe become the most destination for Jakarta people, to be visited, since the distance is not far. The line of vehicles were observed in Puncak and Bandung. In Bandung, the dense of vehicles made traffic jam in many points especially in Dago area, where many factory outlets stand there.

Minister of Art and Tourism, Jero Wacik, said the effort from government to socialize the VIY 2008 program is facing some obtacles. The biggest one is the lack to involve local government. It makes many hotels don't prepare their accomodations. In the end, we can't hope VIY 2008 can be succeeded. Jero Wacik also said, the budget for VIY 2008 is not quite big, if we compare with other ASEAN countries to promote their country. For example, Malaysia prepared budget 5 times from Indonesia in order to promote Visit Malaysia program.

As marine destination, Wakatobi condition is poor since there is no provided navigation facilities. It means, the tourist who want to explore the area by sailing will be in dangerous condition because if their ship doesn't have a capable navigation system, their chance to be lost is quite big. Surono, as Head of Navigation office in Wakatobi, said the sailing route in Wakatobi area can be included as special route, so navigation facilities is a must thing.

Recently, some flight incidents were happened in some locations in Indonesia. Those incidents were involved many airlines, include Garuda Indonesia, the biggest and the most credible airlines. The latest incident was happened in Batam. Adam Air lapsed in Hang Nadim airport when it tried to land.

Finally, Padang government released a tourism portal to provide tourism information in West Sumatera. By launching this portal, Padang government hopes they can help to succeed Visit Indonesia Year 2008, by increasing the number of tourism to West Sumatera, not only aboard tourists but also domestic tourists. Dinas Pariwisata Seni dan Budaya/Disparsenibud (Tourism, Art and Culture Department) has target to effectual about 1,423,824 tourists, with 25,888 aboard tourists and 1,397,936 domestic tourists. This target is increasing about 4.5% from last year.

Indonesia, as a maritim country, has a very big potential of maritim tourism. Unfortunately, this potency is forgettable since this government is busy with other businesses and other tourism objects. Many maritim tourism objects can be found in Indonesia. The simplest thing is Bali. But, Bali is not the only maritim ...

On Sunday, March 9 2008, 2 touring railways were released in Monas in order to help visitors, especially the disabled persons, oldsters, kids, and anyone who need. The ceremony was held on 10 am and some government officials were coming, such as Head of Culture and Museum, Head of Transportation. Governor of DKI, Fauzi Bowo, said this railway is provided for Monas' visitors, free. He also said, this railway will be operated from 08.15 - 17.30 WIB. Since the railway is limited, the governor hoped the health visitor take a walk rather than use the railway.

Recently, a biggest tourism exhibiton was held in US. This event is well known as The New York Times Travel Show 2008 that was located in New York (as the title of exhibition). This participation was necessary since Indonesia wants to introduce and to publish Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program. Number of visitor of this exhibition was about 35,000 people from the tourism business owner and tourist candidates. During exhibition, ended in Sunday March 2 2008, 7,000 persons visited Indonesia stage and most of them was trying to find a tour package.