As an appreciation for its active participations, and continuous efforts to support indonesia tourism, especially to make Visit Indonesian Year 2008 program successful, Garuda Indonesia received the appreciation from Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik. The appreciation certificate and prize given by Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik, were received by President & CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar, at the Visit Indonesian Year Appreciation Night event, held in the office of Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Jakarta, Tuesday, December 23rd 2008.

As flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia reputed as one valuable element in the successfull of Visit Indonesian Year 2008 program, by setting down the VIY 2008 signs in all of its aircrafts, so that VIY 2008 program were spread through all over the world.Besides that, the implemented promotion programs of Garuda Indonesia which generally focused in regional tourism improvement program took more tourists to Indonesia. The programs, for examples, are “One Tree One Passenger”, “Eco Tourism”, “Jogja Walking Heritage”, etc.

In supporting all of the government programs, Garuda Indonesia put an additional function of its abroad branch offices as Indonesian tourism information center. Garuda Indonesia also keeps on supporting Indonesian tourism even in the declining period of the Bali’s bombs tragedy in 2003 by providing ten thousands of free tickets to Bali for tourists from abroad.

According to the data from Department of Culture and Tourism, the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia in 2008 reached 6,5 millions, or within 13% growth from the year before.