Indonesia Scurries To Fix Blunder In Tourism Campaign Slogan

A grammatical error in Indonesia's new 2008 tourism campaign - splashed across airplanes and television advertisements - is to be fixed, a tourism ministry official said Wednesday.

The new slogan of the "Visit Indonesia 2008" campaign reads: "Celebrating 100 years of nation's awakening." "Nation's", in correct English, should read either "national" or be preceded by a definite article.

The awkward phrase is already plastered across the flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia's A330 planes - which were inaugurated by the tourism minister Jero Wacik last week - and appears on websites and in a TV advertisement.

Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

But an emailed message asking about the mistake received this response from Khrisnamurti, the ministry website's content administrator: "We have now been made fully aware of the English-language grammatical mistake in the VIY2008 logo and it will be rectified immediately."

The 1908 event referred to in the slogan was the founding by medical students of "Boedi Oetomo", or "Noble Endeavour," the first nationalist group in the then Dutch-ruled colony - a fact few foreigners would know.

Indonesia declared independence in 1945.

The campaign comes as Indonesia struggles to attract tourists relative to its Southeast Asian neighbours. The archipelago nation, which has endured a series of terror bombings, natural disasters and health scares, recorded a 2.38 per cent drop in foreign tourist arrivals to four million in 2006.

Neighbouring Malaysia attracted nearly 18 million the same year while Thailand lured nearly 14 million.

Indonesia boasts an array of attractions and varied cultures across its 17,000 islands, but the focal point of tourism remains the Hindu enclave of Bali. (THE AGE)