Business in Jl. Jaksa suffer lack of customers

Leo Wahyudi S and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Businesses in the budget tourist hub of Jl. Jaksa in Central Jakarta, popular among foreign tourists and expatriates alike, are continuing to feel the pinch almost two weeks after the Bali bombing, with many reporting that less foreigners were frequenting the area.

Interviewed separately by The Jakarta Post, owners of cafes and hotels along the street said on Thursday that foreign nationals still came to their establishments, albeit they were few in number.

"We have had a drop in visits by up to 50 percent after the bombing," said Iman, the owner of BFC Cafe.

"Our cafe is usually packed before afternoon, but now my cafe is empty until late at night," he complained.

"We used to have some 100 foreign customers coming in daily, while now there are only about 20 of them."

Imam said that before the bombing, there was an equal amount of locals and foreigners making up the clientele, but now, most visitors were Indonesians.

"The bombing has really destroyed our business here," he said.

Ruli Hernawanti of the nearby YaUdah Bistro also complained of slow business.

"I can safely say that we have had a 20 percent drop in foreign guests compared to the time before the bombing," she said.

"The foreigners were unaffected by past cases of bombings in the city. But it's different this time."

Ruli said her patrons were not scared by those bombings, such as the one that rocked the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 2000 or the incident at the Atrium shopping mall last year, as they were not specifically aimed at tourists.

"The Bali bombing, on the other hand, was the first blast to hit foreign tourists en masse," she said.

Ruli said that the decrease had also affected another company under her supervision, Global Travel Service, which is next door to the restaurant.

"A lot of foreign tourists usually book their trips through the agency but now most of our customers are locals," she said.

Similar problems are also shared by budget hotels along the narrow street.

"I must say that there has been a significant decrease after the bombing. We usually have 10 foreigners staying here, but now there are only two or three of them left," Max Maramis of Hotel Djody said.

"The bombing affects not only my hotel but all the businesses along Jl. Jaksa," she said.

Maramis said that many foreign tourists would usually walk the street even in daylight, while now there were only a few of them.

Meanwhile, the area sales manager of the local beer brand, Bir Bintang, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that business had actually increased in the aftermath of the Oct. 12 bombing.

"On a whole, our beer sales have increased by some 10 percent. I am curious. Perhaps the bombing has put people under huge amounts of stress and they are drinking more," he said.

"We usually sell about 1,300 crates of beer a month to all the drinking establishments along Jl. Jaksa, but now we've hit 1,500 crates," he said, while delivering beer to one of the cafes on the street.