Come and visit us, if you really want to<\/p>\n
Traveling exposes you to the good and the bad not only of the
\nplace you travel to, but also helps you to see your town, city,
\ncountry, etc. in a different light.<\/p>\n
Local schoolbooks always point out how beautiful Indonesia is,
\nwith its lush rain forests (with the illegal logging and forest
\nfires, this just goes to show how outdated the books are, not to
\nmention the whole education system), bountiful natural resources
\nand smiling people.<\/p>\n
Then how come tourism is not a major moneymaker? Sure, we have
\nBali. But how about the rest of the 13,677 islands? Surely there
\nare other places in this vast country that merit our wanderlust?
\nI, for one, am easy to impress. Anywhere green or with ancient
\nbuildings, a white beach with blue or, even better, turquoise
\nwaters would be sufficient for me.<\/p>\n
A lot of foreign destinations are overrated, but people still
\ngo anyway. Why? Aside from the bourgeoisie notion of jetsetting
\naround the world, these places have a head-turning marketing
\nplan, with nifty brochures and glossy advertising campaigns fully
\nsupported by their government.<\/p>\n
Pretty pictures and eloquent text, all there to seduce you to
\ngo to yet another beach, shopping center, zoo or what have you. I
\nonce went to a must-see island that turned out to offer a view
\nof ... rocks.<\/p>\n
And come on, no offense to Malaysians the world over, but what
\ndoes our neighbor have that we don't?<\/p>\n
What has our government done to support and promote Indonesian
\ntourism? The occasional culture and dance missions abroad? If you
\ngo to a so-called \"Indonesian Night\" held by a well-intended
\nIndonesian embassy, most likely you'll meet fellow Indonesians
\nand just a handful of the much needed foreigners.<\/p>\n
Browse through leading international travel magazines and
\nnowhere in sight is a slight mention of Indonesia, aside from
\nBali.<\/p>\n
Go to a foreign travel agent and it's likely there will be no
\npackages for Indonesia. Backpackers around the world often skip
\nour country on their trips to Southeast Asia, but happily tread
\nalong to Singapore and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
I once did a little research on Indonesian tourism and called
\nthe Indonesian Embassy in London. The operator made me an
\nappointment with a staff member from the embassy's information
\nsection. During the interview, he admitted that the embassy no
\nlonger had a special section dedicated to tourism since the
\nmonetary crisis hit (the only one in Europe was in the
\nNetherlands).<\/p>\n
He proceeded to hand me some uninspiring, poorly executed and
\noutdated booklets on travel in Indonesia. One booklet stood out,
\nhowever; it was very comprehensive, written in a clear manner and
\nseparated by interests (adventure travel, family, etc.). It
\nactually gave the impression that there are millions of things to
\ndo in Indonesia. Beaches, mountains, historic buildings, shopping
\ncomplexes; we have them all.<\/p>\n
Well, about time. Flick on your satellite TV and you'll see
\naggressive campaigns telling you to go to amazing Thailand, to
\nsee and love Hong Kong, to experience Malaysia, the real Asia.<\/p>\n
The Amazing Thailand tourism advertising campaign debuted in
\n1998, at the height of the Asian economic crisis. It helped
\nThailand pull in 8.65 million tourists in 1999, some 370,000 more
\nthan the target.<\/p>\n
\"The campaign was enormously successful,\" said Tourism
\nAuthority of Thailand spokesman Kaneungnit Chotikakul.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, our country was quite content to rely on the excuse
\nof the crisis and make do with the sprinkling of Australian
\nsurfers who travel to Bali a few times a year. And then the Bali
\nbombings happened.<\/p>\n
The Bali bombings of 2002 have been said to devastate our
\ntourism industry. Why, because the whole country depended on Bali
\nand Bali alone when it comes to tourism? Nobody among the tourism
\nofficials saw the irony in this?<\/p>\n
If the travel warnings have led to a decrease in international
\ntourists, then we should be encouraging people to travel
\ndomestically. After 9\/11 hit the United States, the government
\nquickly launched a campaign to encourage people to travel. They
\neven said it's more patriotic to travel! And the sea of U.S.
\ntravel magazines kept writing about great areas at home to travel
\nto.<\/p>\n
Sure, some holidays have been moved to give us longer weekends
\nto encourage us to travel, but did the government do anything
\nelse aside from that? Did any of the local governments try to
\nentice us to go visit them with special promotions, glossy
\narticles and ad campaigns?<\/p>\n
There is a lot of homework to be done here, including coming
\nup with more organized and aggressive promotions, locally and
\ninternationally. Better infrastructure (better roads, better
\ntransport options, etc.) are needed along the way. And perhaps a
\nspecial force is required to crack down on dubious travel agents,
\nhotels, airlines and individuals who take advantage of tourists.<\/p>\n
So instead of squeezing money out of people who travel abroad
\n(the fiscal fee, perhaps, thankfully, to be gone soon), just
\nimagine how much money the country can make out of a thriving
\ntravel industry?<\/p>\n
-- Krabbe K. Piting<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/come-and-visit-us-if-you-really-want-to-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }