Dengue outbreak may hurt tourist sector

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)