Church pelting hurts Yogyakarta tourism
Church pelting hurts Yogyakarta tourism
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Many foreign tourists have canceled planned
visits to this ancient city, the country's second most important
tourist destination after Bali, following attacks on churches by
mobs here on Sunday.
Chairman of the Yogyakarta chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and
Restaurant Association (PHRI), Stefanus B. Indarto, said on
Tuesday that Sunday's incident scared away foreign visitors.
Many prospective foreign tourists called off planned trips
apparently on fears that the incident could fuel another
religious conflict, he said.
"I was informed by some hotel managers about the
cancellations, and they are still worried that there will be
more," he told The Jakarta Post.
The public relations manager of Hyatt Regency, Atik Wildan,
confirmed that some tourist groups canceled their reservations.
"A group of Japanese tourists, who planned to travel to
Yogyakarta and stay at our hotel, officially canceled after the
Japanese Embassy in Jakarta advised them not to visit Indonesia
for three months," she told the Post.
The riot in Yogyakarta took many by surprise as they believe
that the monarch, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who is also the
governor of Yogyakarta, could always control the people.
Angry mobs pelted churches on their way home from a Muslim
mass gathering called Tablig Akbar at the Kridosono Sport Hall on
Sunday.
At least seven churches -- the Javanese Christian Church on
Jl. Taman Siswa, the Hati Kudus Catholic Church on Jl. Bantul,
the Indonesian Baptist Church on Jl. DI Panjaitan, the Franciscus
Xaverius Catholic Church on Jl. A.M. Sangaji, the Albertus Agung
Catholic Church on Jl. Senopati, a Baptist church on Jl. Taman
Siswa and a Christian church on Jl. Suprapto -- were slightly
damaged in the assault.
The sultan, who was reluctant to have the gathering canceled,
said the attackers were from Yogyakarta and had nothing to do
with "provocateurs".
Indarto said the sectarian clashes in Ambon and Mataram had
affected tourism in Yogyakarta. "So for sure things will get
worse as this clash happened in Yogyakarta," he added.
He said he feared the incident in Yogyakarta could further
worsen the country's image of tourism and that more countries
could issue travel warnings for Indonesia.
"We have worked hard to assure foreign travel agencies that
there would be no riots in Yogyakarta," he said. "And now a small
group of people have destroyed everything within only a few
hours."
Yogyakarta has some 400 hotels with 9,500 rooms, five of which
are five-star hotels with a total capacity of 3,500 rooms. Hotel
occupation rate has increased since January 2000 to 36 percent,
after reaching 32 percent in 1999 and 20.5 percent in 1998.
(44/sur)