Indonesia Developing World Cruise Destinations

So far, Bali has been the major foreign tourist destination province and is expected to serve as a catalyst for Indonesia’s tourism. During 11 months of the January - November 2010 period, the tourist resort islands was visited by 2,345,885 foreign tourists, or an increase of 8.48 percent compared with those arriving in the corresponding period in 2009 which stood at 2,162,576 visitors.

"The arrivals in 2010 exceeded the target set by the Bali regional government at between 2.2 million and 2.3 million arrivals," Bali’s statistics chief officer Gede Suarsa said.

In order to help develop Indonesia’s maritime ecotourism, particularly in island areas, the government is also active in promoting the potentials and cooperating with other countries.

For example, Indonesia has offered cooperation in this field to Maldives. Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) Fadel Muhammad said the island country which is located in the Indian Ocean was asked to cooperate with Indonesia because it had developed advanced island maritime tourism.

Maldives is visited by about one million foreign tourists a year. If the pattern of Maldives’ maritime tourism could be emulated, it is expected that Indonesian islands which account for thousands of islands would attract and multiply foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia.

"About one million foreign tourists visit Maldives every year. Ahead, we will emulate them," the minister said explaining his visit to Maldives last week.  He said Maldives was able to optimize the development of its isles into maritime tourism sites as sources of income for its people.

Maldives leased its islands to investors who developed them into tourist resorts with an investment value of each island reaching US$150 million and 200 million. The rate of hotel rooms there is between 600 and 1,000 per day. This drastically drives fishermen’s income up from about 600-800 to about 10,000 dollars.

"Therefore, we will invite investors both domestic and abroad, to cultivate small islands as tourism sites," the minister said.

In the meantime, Director General for Small Islands and Coastal Areas Sudirman Saad said his side had signed a cooperation agreement with the Maldives’ tourism minister for the development of maritime tourism. He said Indonesia had clusters of islands which had the potentials to be developed into maritime tourism resorts, such as the Anambas islands in Riau province, Rajaampat in Papua and Wakatobi in Central Sulawesi.

"The islands which are good for development are those near Singapore because Indonesia can take advantage of infrastructure in that country," Sudiman Saad said.