Indonesia promotes its tourism industry in Malta

Garuda, Indonesia's national airline, is to resume direct flights between Jakarta and the European Union as from June 1, 2010, according to Mohamad Omar, the Indonesia Ambassador to Malta, who was addressing a seminar aimed at promoting Indonesian tourism.

The seminar, aimed mainly at Maltese travel agents, was held at the Hilton, and was entitled Indonesia's Potential and Opportunities: Tourism and Beyond.

It was organised by the Indonesian Embassy in Rome and the Honorary Consul of Indonesia in Malta, Ernest Sullivan.

Indonesia is focusing on strengthening its tourism industry as one way of reaching its ambitious economic growth target of seven per cent by 2014.

Initially flights will depart from Amsterdam to Jakarta via Dubai, but the idea is to later have Garuda operate from other European airports.

Mr Omar, who is resident in Rome, also said that visa-on-arrivals facilities were recently introduced at Indonesia's international airports and a tax refund scheme will be introduced for tourists shopping in Indonesia as from next year.

Tourist arrivals in Indonesia amounted to 6.5 million in 2008, an increase of nearly one million from the previous year. Next year's target is seven million, and the target for 2011 is 7.7 million; for 2012, 8.5 million; for 2013, 9.3 million; and for 2014, 10.3 million.

With the exception of Bali, Indonesia is not as well known in international tourism circles as Malaysia, for example, which last year managed to attract 21 million tourists, or Thailand.

Indonesia, however, definitely has everything tourists usualy find desirable - natural beauty, exotic culture, good hotels and friendly people.

It is a tropical country and one of the last remnants of tropical rainforests on earth. It consists of 17,508 islands, there are more than 700 living languages spoken and although it is the world's largest Muslim country - with 230 million people - there are large Hindu, Christian and Buddhist populations.

Many analysts believe that Indonesia is poised to join the so-called BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - as one of the rapidly growing countries that could dominate the world economy by the middle of the century.