1. TOURIST, 2 lines, 25 counts

1. TOURIST, 2 lines, 25 counts

Tourist industry people work
hard to polish RI's image

Spirits are running high among people in the tourism industry
here currently as the city is very busy welcoming delegates to an
upcoming conference on tourism in Southeast Asia.

Passengers arrive at the Adisucipto Airport and alight in
front of green billboards welcoming participants to the Jan. 21 -
Jan. 28 Royal ASEAN Tourism Forum 2002.

Similar greetings have also been put up at major
intersections. Hotel vehicles in the ancient city have signs
carrying the same message.

As always, hoteliers hope to enjoy the peak season, while
offering their best service.

"We have been doing some renovation work since early January,
buying new carpet, new marble and doing some repainting in the
lobby," said Darmawan Pandoyo, Hotel Santika's marketing manager.

Sheraton Mustika hotel is also busy beautifying itself.

"We started refurbishing our 241 rooms last October," Edwin
Saragih, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, said.

Most of the star-rated hotels have been fully-booked during
past ASEAN tourist events throughout the region, and this year
looks to be no exception for Yogyakarta. For instance, all of
Santika's 148 rooms have been booked from Jan. 24 to Jan. 30. The
Sheraton is also sold out.

The hot issue surrounding the ATF meeting is the main venue
which is still under construction despite the fact that the event
is set to begin in a few days time.

"The construction workers toil night and day," said taxi
driver Dharmo, referring to the project, which will be called
Yogyakarta Exhibition and Convention Center, or YECC.

The issue of the 17,000 square meter building has been a
source of anxiety among people in the tourism industry and it has
been discussed in ASEAN's tourism publications for months.

Initially, the ATF was planned to be held in a huge dome-tent
which could be rented for Rp 9.5 billion (US$930,000).

But the plans changed after Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X saw the advantage of having a permanent
convention center in developing the MICE (Meeting, Incentive,
Convention and Exhibition) industry for the long term.

2. ATF, 1 line, 35 counts

Yogyakarta, Yogya, Jogja or Jogya?

You may call it Yogyakarta, Yogya, Jogja or Jogya. No problem.

Honestly, there are no other cities in Indonesia that have
equally "popular" different names like this one. And, frankly
speaking, none of the hundreds of names of areas in this country
have been abbreviated in so many ways by its name like
Yogyakarta.

On the streets, people -- including government officials and
university students -- prefer to call this sultanate province
Yogya or Jogja, despite its "official" name Yogyakarta.

Ahead of the upcoming ASEAN Tourism Forum next week, brochures
prepared by organizers, hoteliers and sponsors have already
baffled participants and the international press.

Many of the brochures and booklets quoted the welcome speech
by the Governor and Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, and State Minister
of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika by using the official name
of the city, which is also used as the name of the province.

The brochures also describe the venue of the event:
Yogyakarta Exhibition and Convention Center.

However, the map in the same brochures is written Jogya
Tourist Map. At the back, a banner reads "Jogja, Never Ending
Asia".

The last slogan, apparently a marketing tag, already colored
the tents of many food stalls on the streets.

Locals cannot give a precise explanation on this confusing
matter.

3. TEMPLE, 1 line, 40 counts

Dedicated sisters restore Taoist Kwan Tai temple

MENDOCINO, California (AP) - Amid the quiet pastels of the
coastal village of Mendocino, the brilliantly red and green Kwan
Tai Temple is startling as a shout.
Growing up next door to the temple, Loretta Hee McCoard used to
feel her feet dragging as she neared it - a gaudy reminder that
the Hees were different, the last remnant of a once-bustling
rural Chinatown.
As an adult, she sees the temple with new eyes.
"There is this pride," she says.
Recently, McCoard and sister Lorraine Hee-Chorley celebrated
their 12-year campaign to restore the Taoist temple. It was a
family promise fulfilled, a vanished community honored: the
Chinese who built railroads and chopped timber before being
driven out by discrimination and unemployment.
"We're survivors," says Hee-Chorley. "Our family has always had
to struggle, to fight for what we believe in. We just have never
sat down and died. And we've never let the community forget."
Hee family history indicates the Kwan Tai Temple was built
sometime in the 19th century, and one of the founders was the
sisters' great-grandfather. But all the other families from that
time left, leaving only the Hees to look after the simple, two-
room structure dedicated to the Taoist military god Kwan Tai.
The family patriarch charged his daughter, Yip Lee, with taking
care of the temple, a duty she fulfilled even after her husband
went back to China, leaving her with 10 children.
Yip Lee passed the obligation on to son George Hee, father of
Hee-Chorley and McCoard.
The family faced prejudice on two fronts. Hee had defied
convention by marrying a white woman in the early 1940s; the
couple had to go out of state to find a judge to perform the
marriage. Hee-Chorley and McCoard remember classmates taunting
them with racist chants. Meanwhile, their Chinese relatives were
less than accepting.