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Indonesia to launch Bali tourism rescue
plan
JAKARTA - The Indonesian
government will implement a three-step program to help
restore the tourism industry after the deadly bomb
attack on Bali, Tourism and Culture Minister I Gde
Ardika says.
"The three recovery steps deal with
rescue, rehabilitation and normalization programs," he
said on Wednesday.
The rescue program, which
will be implemented over the next two months, will focus
on humanitarian activities, including offering an
apology to the countries whose citizens fell victim to
the tragedy, and expressing condolences to the relatives
of victims, he said. To restore the image of Bali, the
government will implement a number of rescue steps, such
as encouraging the holding of national conferences on
the resort island, developing domestic tourism by
offering special packages, and launching a "welcome
program" at every entry point into the island resort, he
said.
"With the rescue program, we will also
benefit from regional cooperation by, among other
things, reviving ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian
Nations] Joint Promotion," he said.
The
rehabilitation program covers the improvement of
marketing strategy and the quality of goods and
services, and the granting of fiscal and non-fiscal
incentives, he said, adding that the rehabilitation
program would be implemented between January and June
next year.
The normalization program scheduled
for 2004 will cover efforts to take maximum advantage of
bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation, and
they will launch tourism campaigns through the print and
electronic media at home and abroad, he said.
"The normalization program also covers service
standardization which focuses on consumer's protection,"
he said. Asked whether the Bali tragedy will have a
significant impact on the country's foreign exchange
coffers from the tourism industry, he said he did not
know exactly.
Under the 1999-2000 national
development program (Propenas), the government has
projected foreign exchange earnings from the tourism
sector at US$5.4 billion this year.
"The target
of $5.4 billion is based on Propenas so that it cannot
be changed. The realization may fall short of target but
we cannot say by how much," he said.
(Asia
Pulse/Antara)
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