Australians may be staying away from Bali in droves but Indonesia is pinning its hopes on Russian visitors for a significant recovery in tourism.
Arrivals in Bali from Australia in 2006 almost halved, down from 391,800 to 213,410.
Tatang Rukiyat, director for international promotions with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said Russian travellers “”were not afraid of bombs or terrorism. They will flow naturally to Bali”.
Rukiyat also revealed that Russia had approached Indonesia for rights to fly to Indonesia.
Wahid Supriyadi, consulate general of Indonesia in Melbourne, said that relations between Indonesia and Australia had never been better but there were “misunderstandings on both sides”.
He said these included perceptions in Australia that Indonesia was run by a military government and was not a democracy.
Bisnis Indonesia recently reported that Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla has called on tourism authorities to revise upward their current target of 5.5 million foreign visitors in 2007 to 7 million.
The vice president reportedly made his request in a meeting with the Minister of Culture and Tourism, complaining that the current target of 5.5 million was little improvement on the 2005 performance when just under 5 million foreign tourists arrived in Indonesia.
