Category Archives: INDONESIA

INDONESIA

ASEAN TODAY TV: Indian Ocean Tsunami Remembered

Jakarta – Survivors recall the day 10 years ago when a massive tsunami changed their lives.  That story tops the January 2015 edition of “ASEAN Today TV”.

Chairat Thomya of Thailand’s Channel 3 co-anchors the programme from Bangkok, with Dalton Tanonaka of The Indonesia Channel at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. They also report on the search of AirAsia QZ8501, making mozzarella in Indonesia, and the best blooming orchids in Thailand.

This is the 37th episode in the informative and entertaining series now entering its fourth year of broadcast. The programme can be viewed on ASEAN TODAY as well as through ASEAN broadcasters including The Indonesia Channel and Vietnam’s VOV-TV.

 

INDONESIA, Travel Infos

“Wonderful Indonesia” brand re-launched

Jakarta – The Ministry of Tourism of Republic Indonesia conducted the re-launching of “Wonderful Indonesia” and “Pesona Indonesia” (The Charm of Indonesia) brands to further enhance the tourism marketing and promotional efforts on national and international scale. The brand is the official country branding which will be used by all destinations in Indonesia.
 
“For instance, Jakarta may use Enjoy Jakarta, however it will be followed by Wonderful Indonesia” stated the Minister of Tourism, Arief Yahya during the press conference.
 
Arief Yahya explained that Indonesia is still improving its tourism promotion. Various efforts are being undertaken to effectively promote the country including through digital media such as mobile apps, digital campaigns, interactive campaigns, viral marketing (facebook, twitter, youtube, blogs); advertising in thematic magazines; road shows; and also familiarization trips by inviting tour operators and travel writers from a number of targeted countries.
 
“Digital Marketing has 60% more effectiveness and costs 60% compared to the non-digital marketing, this means three times more effective than the non-digital marketing” explained Arief Yahya.
 
In order to achieve the target of the total number of 20 million international tourists in 2019, the government is also taking a number of breakthroughs including providing Short Term Visit Free Visa policies for 5 more countries, namely: Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, and Russia which will be applied in 2015, and also simplifying yachts and cruise ships’ permits to enter Indonesian waters.
 
The re-launching of “Wonderful Indonesia” brand is one of the 10 Quick Wins programs of the President of Republic Indonesia. The other programs are: e-tourism, formulation of tourism promotion contents, national culinary week, travel blogger’s appreciation acknowledgments, Jakarta digital valley (Bale Motekar),the groundbreaking of Kota Tua Performance House, acknowledgments to creaqtive people who recycle creative products, digital photo bank, and Indonesia Film Festival.
 
“In e-tourism, we will launch the digital cinema and online cinema  so that cities and regencies in Indonesia that are yet to have movie theatres can also watch tourism movies. The program will be first launch in three area: Banjarbaru in South Kalimantan, Bukittinggi in West Sumatra, and Banyuwangi in East Java” added the Minister.
 
The strength of tourism attraction consists of three elements which are nature, culture, and manmade. These three elements will be developed as national prime tourism products. Nature has 60% potentials and will be developed through marine tourism, ecotourism, and adventure tourism. Culture has 35% potentials and will be developed through heritage tourism, religious tourism, culinary, and shopping. Meanwhile, manmade that has 5% potentials will be developed through MICe, events, sport tourism, and integrated area tourism. Source: traveldailynews

INDONESIA

Air Asia Flight QZ8501: Remains of one passenger identified

Jakarta – The Disaster Victim Identification Police Department of Republic of Indonesia (DVI POLRI) on 1 January confirmed that the remains of one passenger on board QZ 8501 was identified as Hayati Luthfi Hamid (female). The confirmation was announced upon matching forensic and ante-mortem tests with the DNA evidence submitted by the families.
 
Sunu Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer AirAsia Indonesia handed the remains to her family at a ceremony held at Bhayangkara Hospital, Surabaya.
 
Sunu said, “On behalf of everyone at AirAsia, we extend our profound condolences to the family and friends of late Hayati Luthfi Hamid. AirAsia will support everything that the family may need during these difficult times.”
 
Earlier, BASARNAS also confirmed that a total of six out of seven remains of QZ 8501 passengers which were recovered in Karimata Strait had been transported in Bhayangkara Hospital this morning for immediate identification by Disaster Victim Identificiation Police Department of Republic of Indonesia (DVI POLRI).
 
DVI team are now working on thorough identification which includes DNA check and forensics examination.
 
Meanwhile, the search and rescue effort still continues. Indonesian Minister of Transportation has deployed 5 additional vessels to the searching area. To date, there are more than 90 vessels and aircraft from numerous countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, United States, involved in the operation. Source: travelnewsdaily
 

INDONESIA, SINGAPORE

Debris from Air Asia plane discovered

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have confirmed that the objects and corpses spotted are from the missing AirAsia plane and they will be brought to Pangkalan Aju in Pangkalan Bun of Central Kalimantan province, the nearest place to the location of the finding.

The bodies will be sent to Surabaya, the capital of East Java province where the plane took off, for identification, said Bambang Sulistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency.

Local media reported that 40 bodies have been recovered, citing the country’s Navy spokesperson.

At a press conference earlier Tuesday, Sulistyo said “At 12:50 Jakarta time, Indonesian Air Force’s Hercules plane found a shadow which looks like part of a plane.”

“At 13:30 Jakarta time (rescuers aboard) the Indonesian Navy warship Bung Tomo saw an object believed to be an emergency exit door of a plane,” said Sulistyo.

“With all the findings, I am as the coordinator of search and rescue 95 percent sure the location and the objects are parts of the plane that we are searching for.”

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 vanished from the radar screen 42 minutes after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, on Sunday.

The Singapore-bound Airbus 320-200 carried 162 people, including 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Malaysia, Singapore, Britain and France.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes said on Tuesday that his heart was filled with sadness for all families involved in Flight QZ8501.

“On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am,” he said on his twitter account, adding that he was rushing to Surabaya.

INDONESIA, SINGAPORE

Indonesia resumes search for missing Air Asia plane

Jakarta /Singapore – Search and rescue operation for an AirAsia plane that went missing on Sunday with 162 people on board resumed on Monday morning, rescuer said here. “Some plane and helicopters have moved to the waters where the jetliner was believed to have lost since 05:30 a.m. Jakarta time,” Ahmad Toha, official in charge at the national search and rescue office, told the Chinese news agency Xinhua by phone.

The operation was halted at 17:00 p.m. Jakarta time on Sunday due to darkness at the highly suspected area on the waters near the Bangka Belitung islands, he said. “The agency has broadcast information to ships that were passing through the waters to join in monitoring the seas and asked them to report whether they found any signs of crash,”said Toha.

The army will conduct search on land around the scene where the plane was believed to go missing, according to Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transportation.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact with the ground after the air traffic control consent to the pilot’s request to change flight route but it did not approve the request to increase its height to 34,000 feet, said Murjatmodjo.

The Airbus A320-200, which set off from Surabaya to Singapore, lost contact with air traffic control about 42 minutes after its takeoff at 5:35 a.m. local time (2235 GMT Saturday) from Surabaya in Indonesia’s East Java province.

There were 155 passengers and seven crew members on board the flight. Source: Xinhua