UNWTO REPRESENTATIVE VISITS JAKARTA TO GIVE MORAL SUPPORT

Jakarta, July 22 (ANTARA) - The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)'s representative for Asia and the Pacific, Xu Jing, is visiting Jakarta to give moral support and express solidarity to Indonesia following last Friday's terrorist bombings.

Accompanied by Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik, Xu Jing was scheduled to visit the bombings ground zero at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in South Jakarta., a press statement from the Indonesian Culture and Tourism Ministry said here on Wednesday.

The UNWTO official and Minister Wacik would later give a press conference at Bellagio Mall, Mega Kuningan, on recovery efforts and the UNWTO's commitment to assisting Indonesia's tourism recovery.

The UNWTO had previously expressed its commitment to helping Indonesia in implementing a tourism recovery program following the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

UNWTO had also helped Indonesia in implementing recovery programs in the aftermath of the Bali bombing I (in October 2002), and the Bali Bombing II (November 2005), the tsunami disaster in Aceh Province (December 2004), and the powerful earthquake which devastated Yogyakarta in May 2006.

The UN body has also assisted Indonesia in dealing with the Influenza A (H1N1) or swine flu as well as with the bird flu (H5N1) problems.

Minister Jero Wacik hoped that Xu Jing's visit would not only be moral support to the Indonesian government but also convince the international community that the Indonesian government was capable of dealing with the bombings as it already had experience in the matter.

According to the UNWTO website, UNWTO's interim secretary-general Taleb Rifai had confirmed that UNWTO is working closely with Indonesia's culture and tourism minisry to develop the country's tourism sector which was vital to Indonesia in terms of job opportunities creation trade and development and had recently succeeded in achieving solid and impressive results due to its rich and diverse products.

Rifai expressed great confidence in the capacity and experience of the Indonesia government to overcome quickly the current difficulties, to consolidate the country's rich and vast tourism assets and to continue building an even stronger Tourism sector in the future.