Dengue outbreak may hurt tourist sector

JAKARTA (JP): The dengue fever outbreak could become a "bomb ready to explode" for Indonesia's already bruised tourist sector, the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) has said.

The association's foreign affairs division head, Elly Hutabarat, said yesterday many overseas travel groups had canceled plans to visit Indonesia due to reports of the fever's outbreak.

But Hutabarat said the association had no concrete data on the number of cancellations so far.

"If we don't do something about this problem soon, it's going to turn into a bomb ready to explode," she said at a discussion on tourism.

"We've been jinxed with the haze, airplane accidents, social unrest, increasing crime and health problems and now there is dengue fever," she said, referring to several misfortunes that have been hitting the country, causing lower numbers of tourist arrivals.

Hutabarat said many foreign tourists were very concerned about health issues, especially about diseases like hepatitis and dengue fever for which vaccines have yet to be discovered.

In addition, many of the country's main tourist destinations, such as Bali, do not have adequate hospitals to provide proper medical treatment, she said.

The Ministry of Health has termed this year's outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease as an "extraordinary incidence". Fatalities have been recorded in 11 of Indonesia's 27 provinces.

The disease has claimed 207 lives and hospitalized 7,585 people throughout the country over the past few months. Jakarta accounts for the majority of the figures with 50 deaths and 3,900 hospitalized since January.

The ministry warned that the outbreak would likely continue until June.

The head of the Jakarta branch of ASITA, Meity Robot, said yesterday that the number of inbound tour groups to the country had already dropped 60 percent this year due to reports of haze caused by forest fires and students demonstrating for reforms.

University students across the country have been conducting on-campus protests almost daily, demanding lower prices for basic goods and sweeping political reforms.

At the same time, local travel agencies have suffered from a major drop in outbound customers since the government recently increased its fiscal fee for departing residents 300 percent to Rp 1 million. The increase was due to the rupiah's 70 percent collapse in value against the U.S. dollar.

Many travel agents have been forced to lay off employees because of falling incomes.

"Travel agents that are still open are only barely surviving," Hutabarat said. (das)