Indonesia to Woo Australian Tourist Visitors

(5/14/2011)

The Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism has declared its intention to attract 800,000 Australian tourism to the country in 2011.

Quoted by the national news agency Antara, Noviendi Makala, the Ministry's director of international promotions said, "the figure is about 230,000 or nearly 45 percent higher than the number of Australians who vacationed in Indonesia in 2010."

These figure, however, are at variance with the 647,872 Australian visitors officially recorded to Bali alone in 2010. In fact, the latest installment of "Bali by the Numbers" from Balidiscovery.com shows that Australian arrivals for Q1 2011 are up 27.95%. If that growth trend is sustained through the remainder of the year, Australian arrivals to Bali will end the year at 829,000 - well above the just-declared national target from the ministry.

In promoting Australian tourism, the Ministry will focus on four major Australian cities: Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. A planned Rp. 2 billion budget is planned to spent in promoting Indonesia to Australia, with part of the promotional expense coming from the government's promotional funds and the remainder from tourism industry players in Bali.

Bali Village - a tourism promotion group has organized  a 28-member Bali tourism sales mission to take place May 22-31, 2011.