'Air seating capacity needs to be doubled'

JAKARTA (JP): The annual seating capacity of international air flights serving Indonesia needs to double to 13 million if the country is to meet its target of 6.5 million annual tourist arrivals by 1999.

Director General of Tourism Andi Mappi Sammeng told a tourism coordination meeting at the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications yesterday that more overseas air carriers must be encouraged to serve Indonesia.

"International air seat capacity is currently only some seven million per annum, out of which 30 percent is provided by local airlines and 70 percent by overseas air carriers," Andi said.

"This is far lower than the 16 million seats provided by 86 airlines serving our neighbor, Singapore."

The ministry's deputy director general for travel development, Azhari Abdullah, told reporters that two airline seats are needed for each tourist expected to visit Indonesia.

A ministry official, Faried, explained that this ratio of seat capacity against tourist arrivals is calculated on the assumption that a jet generally has a load factor of 70 percent, while its passengers also include Indonesians traveling abroad.

Indonesia is presently served by six domestic air carriers and 37 foreign airlines.

Several more foreign airlines - including Northwest and United Airlines of the United States, Air Mauritius, and ANA of Japan - have pledged to open routes into the country.

Indonesia has prepared 23 airports as international gateways into the archipelago.

Services

The major air entrance points are Jakarta, Surakarta (Central Java), Surabaya (East Java), Denpasar (Bali), Medan (North Sumatra), Manado (North Sulawesi), Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi) and Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara).

Abdullah said that Indonesia needs to improve its airport, immigration and accommodation services if it is to attract more foreign tourists.

"Immigration, quarantine, customs and excise services at airports are no doubt very important to give tourists a good first impression," he said.

Mastery of foreign languages by officials and guides is also important, he said.

"We have to follow the trends of our market. If the trends show more travel by East Asians, we have to prepare more people speaking Japanese or Mandarin, for instance."

Indonesia aims to increase annual revenue from foreign tourism to US$8.9 billion by 1999.

The country is expected to generate $6.27 billion from foreign tourism this year, compared to $5.2 billion gained from 4.3 million visitors in 1995 and $4.7 billion from 4.01 million tourists in 1994. (icn)