British tourists in Bali up by 47% in Q1

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 06/09/2011 10:01 AM

Bali enjoyed a 47 percent increase in the number of British tourists visiting the island in the first quarter of the year, from 21,859 people in the same period in 2010 to 32,129 people this year.

“They mostly entered [Bali] through Ngurah Rai Airport aboard direct flights from their country; only 1,179 people came via the sea port on board cruises,” Bali Central Statistics Agency chief Gede Suarsa said Thursday in Denpasar.

British tourists thus represent 3.78 percent of the total of 848,899 foreign tourists in Bali in the first quarter of 2011; an increase of 13 percent compared with the same period last year, Gede said.

He added that throughout 2010, a total of 96,412 British tourists visited Bali, an increase of 2.8 percent from the year before.

The recent figure has made Britain the seventh-largest contributor of foreign tourists to Bali after Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. Earlier, it was ranked ninth.

In the first quarter, Bali similarly saw increases in the numbers of visitors from Australia, up by 35 percent compared to the same period last year; China (up by 0.19 percent); Malaysia (33 percent); Russia (27 percent); Singapore (43 percent); and France (15 percent).

The number of tourists from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, meanwhile, declined by 22 percent, 10.5 percent and 1 percent, Antara reported.

British trade delegation to meet Yudhoyono at palace

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/07/2011 9:39 AM | Business

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to receive a British delegation on trade and investment led by the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.

Presidential special staff for international relations Teuku Faizasyah said the meeting would discuss efforts to improve trade and investment between the two countries. On Wednesday, Andrew met with Coordinating
Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa.

Hatta said British companies were interested in developing the energy sector in Indonesia, particularly in oil and gas.

“Apart from that, they are also interested in being involved in the development of infrastructure, whether that be in the energy sector, transportation or manufacturing,” Hatta said.

Britain was also interested in improving the capacity of small and medium enterprises by opening the British Standard Institute here.

“They are really genuine in wanting to be engage in capacity building,” Hatta said.

Andrew, Hatta said, suggested a few regulatory reforms to improve the capacity of local entrepreneurs and to provide certainty to businesses in terms of legal procedures.

British lawmakers told off for tweeting in Commons

The Associated Press, London | Thu, 01/20/2011 12:30 PM | World

No tweeting in the House, please.

The deputy speaker of Britain's House of Commons has asked lawmakers not to use Twitter while sitting in the chamber. Lindsay Hoyle intervened after Kevin Brennan, a Labour lawmaker, noted midway through a debate on education that two other lawmakers there were tweeting about the debate on Twitter.

Brennan complained the lawmakers should have voiced their arguments in Parliament so other lawmakers could have a chance to rebut them, instead of making comments online.

Hoyle warned Wednesday that lawmakers should not use Twitter to update followers while they sit in the Commons.