Rumours had been circulating in tourist industry circles that in a recent Cabinet Meeting, Vice President Jusuf Kalla had urged Minister for Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik to review upward Indonesia’s tourism arrival target for 2007, from 5.5 million – as projected by the Department – to 7 million, to be followed by 8 million in 2008 and 9 million in 2009.  However, no official statement was yet forthcoming.
In his latest meeting with the media, Director General for Tourism Marketing and Promotion, Thamrin Bachri, still mentioned 5.5 million international arrivals as Indonesia’s official 2007 target (See Indonesia Digest 03.07).

It was Bisnis Indonesia’s Erwin Nurdin, who checked with the office of the VP Jusuf Kalla on this point, and received confirmation that the Vice President had indeed urged Minister Jero Wacik to revise the 2007 arrival target to 7 million. This is considering that Indonesia owns such an abundance of natural, cultural and man-made attractions, that as a country we should actually surpass tourist arrivals to Singapore and Malaysia, was Jusuf Kalla’s reasoning.  Singapore this year targets its international visitors close to 10 million, while Malaysia hopes to receive almost 20 million tourists.    

Asked on this matter, Minister Jero Wacik replied that he had indeed received the request from the Vice President, but that the possibility of such increase was still being studied in more detail by his Ministry. The Ministry’s official target will be announced only after the next coordinating meeting with the Vice President early February, said Minister Jero Wacik.
Indonesia still faced a number of negative perceptions in the market, said the Minister, therefore, the earlier set target of 5.25 million to 5.5 million arrivals for 2007 was made, expecting the larger percentage of visitors to enter through Indonesia’s main entry ports of Jakarta, Bali and Batam. While Indonesia’s priority markets continue to be the traditional markets of Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands and South Korea, with inroads being made into the new markets of China, India and the Middle East.
In 2006, Indonesia failed to reach the 5 million target, having received 4,796,603 visitors, a shortfall of some 4 percent below target. Similarly this figure was down 4 percent compared to 2005 arrivals of 5,002,101, reports Bisnis Indonesia. 
Meanwhile, balidiscovery.com reported that total foreign tourist arrivals to Bali ended the year 2006 at 1,260,317. Despite a shortfall against arrivals in 2005, Bali arrivals built strength on long-haul markets from the Americas and Europe, while arrivals from its four largest source markets of Japan, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea remained sluggish.