Foreign travelers told to avoid Indonesia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Foreign travelers have been advised to stay away
\nfrom Indonesia, as riots continue to sweep even the normally calm
\nareas across the country, triggering concerns for the already
\ntroubled tourism industry.<\/p>\n
As the United States urged its nationals to \"consider
\ncarefully\" before traveling to Indonesia, and Japan maintains its
\nlevel 2 travel warning for the country, tourism-related
\nindustries confessed they expected there would be worse to come.<\/p>\n
\"We expect things to stay this way until the general election
\nin June or until the end of the year,\" Meity Robot, head of the
\nJakarta Chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel
\nAgencies, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"Of course, we don't like to project such pessimism, but we
\nreally cannot expect anything if people are still roaming the
\ncountry provoking riots,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Meity said hotel occupancy rates now averaged at about 10
\npercent in Jakarta, one of the cities adversely affected by bad
\npress on Indonesia's turmoil.<\/p>\n
Other places, like world-renowned Bali, the resort island of
\nBintan, and the nearby commerce hub of Batam have remained
\nrelatively unscathed by the violent frenzy engulfing other areas,
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Since the fatal May riots, which culminated in president
\nSoeharto's resignation, Indonesia has been torn by a series of
\nupheavals, some of which many people believe were politically
\nmotivated.<\/p>\n
The latest was last week's bloody inter-religious clash in the
\ncountry's eastern island of Maluku, which has claimed over 50
\nlives.<\/p>\n
The violence prompted the United States to warn its nationals
\nof Indonesia's unstable political and economic situation which
\n\"is likely to remain so leading up to the June 1999 parliamentary
\nelections and the selection of a new president a few months
\nlater.\"<\/p>\n
Australia has advised its citizens intending to travel to
\nIndonesia to be aware of the \"likelihood of continuing public
\ndisturbances and political demonstrations in Jakarta and in other
\ncenters in Indonesia which have the potential to turn violent
\nwithout warning.\"<\/p>\n
The consular service's travel advice noted an increase in
\nrobberies and street crimes in the country.<\/p>\n
Japan has not renewed its travel advisory level since the
\nfatal shootings of protesting students around Jakarta's Semanggi
\njunction in November which claimed 16 lives.<\/p>\n
But the current level 2 travel advisory status recommends
\nJapanese suspend all nonessential travel to all destinations in
\nIndonesia, except Bali.<\/p>\n
Japan normally imposes the most stringent travel advisory to
\nits citizens.<\/p>\n
After the May riots, it imposed a level 3 travel warning,
\nbanning all travel to Indonesia. In September, it downgraded the
\nwarning to traveling with caution, level 1, until the Semanggi
\nincident.<\/p>\n
The spokesman for Japan's Information and Cultural Section,
\nShigeya Aoyama, said the warning level could go as high as level
\n5, the necessity to evacuate the country, if conditions worsened.<\/p>\n
The manager of tour operators Vista Ekspres, Rudyanto, said on
\nWednesday that three international cruise liners which were
\nscheduled to berth in Maluku's capital of Ambon next month had
\nchanged their original plans.<\/p>\n
Vista was supposed to operate city tours in Ambon for the
\npassengers of the three cruise ships bearing U.S. flags, Rudyanto
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"But how can we give a tour of a burnt out city?\" he said.<\/p>\n
Vista would offer instead other destinations, such as Manado
\nin North Sulawesi, if the cruise ships still wanted to stop in
\nIndonesia, he said.<\/p>\n
Rudyanto said the cruise operators might choose to avoid
\nIndonesia altogether and take longer route instead. (das)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/foreign-travelers-told-to-avoid-indonesia-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}