Anti-U.S. protests won't seriously harm tourism sector: Official

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Growing anti-U.S. sentiment at home will not seriously affect the country's tourism as U.S. and European tourists only make up some of the foreign arrivals, a senior official at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture said.

"Yes, there will be an impact on tourism, but it won't be as severe as people think," Setyanto P. Santoso, the secretary- general of the ministry said at a news gathering on Tuesday.

"Of the total 5.2 million visitors last year, less than 20 percent were Americans and Europeans," he said.

Nevertheless, Setyanto said that his office had set up a team called the Crisis Management Committee to seek the best way to deal with the problem.

"The team groups experts from various fields, including economists and academics," he said.

Setyanto said that the team had recently come up with a strategic marketing plan: to focus promotions more on ASEAN and East Asian countries as they have been the key contributors to the country's tourist arrival totals each year.

"Sixty percent of last year's 5.2 million foreign arrivals came from that region. And it has been like that for years," he said.

Thamrin B. Bachri, the ministry's director general for marketing, said that the tourist target of 5.4 million for this year could be achieved by optimizing the market within the region, not the U.S. or Europe.

"We can still achieve the target, but only if we can keep the situation under control," he said. "If we can't, then we'll be in the pessimistic zone."

As of August, as many as 3.6 million tourists had arrived in the country, which was just 1.8 million short of this year's target.

There has been concern that growing anti-U.S. sentiment here will deter foreign tourists from visiting the country.

Following the U.S.-led military strikes launched against Afghanistan two days ago, anti-U.S. protests have been on the rise. The protests have been staged by small but vocal radical groups, which earlier threatened to expel American citizens if the U.S. proceeded with the attack plan.

This has created jitters among foreigners. On Monday, several U.S. and British companies closed their local offices as a precautionary measure amid threats from the radical groups.

Elsewhere, Thamrin also said that Indonesia had recently participated in the 14th World Tourism Organization (WTO) General Assembly held in Seoul, from Sept. 23 to Sept. 27, and Osaka, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.

During the occasion, the Indonesian delegation was awarded the "WTO Award" for the best tourism poster in Asia.