100 Cruise Ships Heading for Indonesia
Growing Perception of Safety Lures More Cruise Ships to Bali and the Rest of Indonesia.
The Director General of Marketing for the Department of Culture and
Tourism, Sapta Niwandar, told Bisnis Indonesia that he is confident that
Indonesia will play host to 100 cruise ship visits during the current
2008-2009 season.
Niwandar credited the increase in cruise ship visits to Indonesia's
improving security and the traveling public's improved view of Indonesia
as a whole. As explained by the man in charge of Indonesian tourism
marketing: "Although Indonesia is not yet a main destination, the desire
to undertake cruise visits to Indonesia is large. Cruise operators from
Puerto Rico, for example, will soon deploy their ships towards Bali.
Puerto Rico earns 1.4 million tourist visitors each year from the cruise
sector."
Based on discussions with Puerto Rican cruise operators, Niwandar said
that even wider opportunities for cooperation between the two countries
remained to be explored. Puerto Rican tourism operators are interested
not only in cruise shipping, but also in cooperating on spa projects and
creating employment opportunities.
Niwandar said that the recent increase in cruise ships is also
attributable to allowing companies other than PT Pelni to act as local
agents for visiting ships.
According to Niwandar: "The benefits from ship visits can bring between
200-2,000 people to Bali. The MV Rhapsody came to Indonesia last year
with 2,000 passengers visiting Bali, Lombok and Komodo along the way."
The tourism official also reminded of efforts now underway to establish Bali as a yacht tourism center.
Source : http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=4492
