Battling violent image to tempt tourists
Battling violent image to tempt tourists
Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters, Bandung, West Java
An air-conditioned train gathers speed as it takes a hill curve
on a track elevated hundreds of feet above lush terraced green
rice fields.
A short distance away, travelers watch smiling village
children gather around a kite maker assembling their favorite
toy. Other bare-footed youngsters fly red diamond-shaped kites
that have already been made.
Some 2,300 kilometers to the east in the Moluccas islands, a
civil emergency is in place as the Indonesian government tries to
end a three year religious conflict that has claimed more than
5,000 lives.
The conflicting scenes of serenity and violence are a
conundrum for Indonesia's tourism sector as it tries to put the
best marketing spin on the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Indonesia's international image is marked by endless
demonstrations, political instability, Muslim militancy and
communal, religious and separatist violence -- complete with
travel warnings from major Western governments.
Against this, it is hard for Indonesia's travel industry to
sell its message that it is safe to visit the jungles and
pristine beaches of the world's largest archipelago -- which if
laid over Europe would stretch from Dublin to Moscow.
"I don't have any problem on embassies' travel warnings as
long as they mention clearly where the troubles are," I Gede
Ardika, Minister for Culture and Tourism, told Reuters.
The 1998 Asian economic crisis hit Indonesia harder than its
neighbors. As well as suffering financially, the crisis helped
bring about the fall of Indonesia's autocratic long-time
president Soeharto.
The country has been racked by a series of deadly communal and
separatist clashes in some outlying provinces, and went through
political turbulence that saw three different presidents in the
four post-Soeharto years.
Faced with this, tourists steered away from the beaches of
Bali and other Indonesian holiday spots, such as the island of
Lombok, Manado on Sulawesi and the cultural destination of
Yogyakarta on Java island, in favor of other Southeast Asian
destinations.
Indonesian tourist arrivals fell 11 percent to 4.6 million in
1998. Visitors who did arrive spent less money and shortened
their stays, cutting tourism spending 19 percent to US$4.3
billion.
Visitor numbers climbed back to a record high in 2001 of over
5.1 million, taking revenue back to $5.4 billion -- a similar
level to spending before the crisis.
But the heavily-indebted country lags behind neighbors like
Thailand, just a quarter the size, which last year had 10 million
tourists generating income of $7.6 billion.
The resort island of Bali -- the "Island of the gods" with
20,000 temples, is the jewel in the crown of Indonesian tourism.
It suffered from the country's plunge into crisis but
attracted nearly 1.5 million foreign tourists last year.
Bali has been largely free of the unrest that has rocked
Indonesia in recent years, partly since its Hindu religion
insulated it from Muslim-Christian fissures elsewhere.
But it is seen by many internationally as an oasis of calm in
a turbulent country.
"While Bali remains a relatively safe destination, much of the
rest of Indonesia is a risky proposition," says tour guide
publisher Lonely Planet in a web site warning to tourists.
The United States has a similar caution.
"The security in many parts of Indonesia puts Americans at
potential risk," says the web site of the U.S. Embassy in
Jakarta.
The British Embassy says: "We believe that Indonesia is one of
a number of countries where there is an increased threat to
British interests from global terrorism. Visitors should be extra
vigilant in public places."
Although some of the worst social troubles have abated in
Indonesia and the presidency of Megawati Soekarnoputri looks
relatively stable, the country is still fighting separatist
rebels in Aceh and Papua, at the extreme western and eastern ends
of the country.
And after the U.S. declared war on terrorism in Afghanistan,
anti-U.S. rallies erupted in Jakarta and elsewhere and extremist
Islamic groups threatened to expel Americans and other
Westerners. A grenade exploded at an Australian international
school in Jakarta in November.
The demonstrations have faded and the threats proved mostly
empty, but the damage to Indonesia's image lingered.
Indonesian tourism authorities and private tour operators
acknowledge there is violence in some danger spots but argue that
with 17,000 islands in a country with a land area nearly three
times the size of Texas, there are plenty of safe holiday
choices.
"We are quite open. Temporarily...you are not suggested to go
to the Moluccas, you are not advised to go to Aceh, but you are
suggested to go to other places," said Ardika.
If tourists believe the message, with an associated marketing
effort built around a rich culture of indigenous tribes, rain
forests and marine national parks, Ardika hopes to push arrivals
this year to 5.4 million to 5.8 million.
The global marketing plan takes in traditional markets such as
Western Europe and North America, along with emerging ones
including China, India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
"Our strategy is it is better for us for not too many tourists
to come, but they can spend more (time and money)."