Portal:Indonesia/AOTW/38, 2006



Indonesia is a vast tropical tourism destination. As an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, it has the longest shoreline in the world. The natural beauty of Indonesia is well preserved. Indonesia exhibits great cultural diversity with about 300 different ethnic groups officially recognized. The country offers great value for money to tourists and Indonesian people are renowned for their warmth and hospitability, a guiding principle of Indonesian culture.

Since the first development by the Dutch East Indies, tourism in Indonesia has had major milestones as well as significant falls. Several terrorist threats in Indonesia including the 2002 Bali Bombing, 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and the 2005 Bali bombing which affected the rate of tourism. As of 2006, tourism in Indonesia is overseen by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Kementerian Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata), but in recent years, regional tourism authorities are playing an increasingly important role in developing and marketing tourism in their regions. (read more...)