Bird flu should not impact RI tourism

Bird flu should not impact RI tourism

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current outbreak of bird flu disease in a number of Asian
countries should not have a significant impact on the Indonesian
tourism sector as long as the government takes measures to
prevent the disease from becoming rampant in this country,
according to tourism experts.

The experts also believed that the bird flu disease would be
easier to control compared to last year's Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, which has dealt a heavy
blow to the region's tourism industry.

"Even if there will be an impact, I don't think that it will
be significant particularly as Indonesia is still free from bird
flu," said Metty Robot, deputy chairwoman of the Indonesian
Tourism Society.

"Although it won't be as frightening as SARS, the government
should have some measures in place to prevent it from becoming a
problem."

But the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the
bird flu outbreak, which has affected countries like Vietnam,
South Korea, Japan and Thailand, could be more deadly than SARS.

Yanti Sukamdani of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association
(PHRI) was optimistic that the government could deal with the
bird flu issue.

"As long as the government says that our poultry industry is
safe and free from bird flu, then we shouldn't be worry. The key
is trust, if we cannot trust our own government, who can we?,"
Yanti said.

Yanti also said that hotel management associations, in
cooperation with the health agency has prepared for the worst by
providing medical posts for hotel guests, the same as was done
with SARS.

Yanti emphasized that hotel and restaurant customers should
not be overly worried about eating poultry since all meat has
undergone tight screening from the health agency.

The country's tourism sector has just started to recover from
the spate of bad news like the SARS epidemic and a number of
bombing incidents.

This year the government is targeting some 5 million foreign
tourist arrivals, from 4.4 million last year.