Government fears riots may affect tourist arrivals

Government fears riots may affect tourist arrivals

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications
Joop Ave said that the current restlessness following last
weekend's riots might affect the occupancy rates in major hotels
in Jakarta and tourist arrivals in the country.

"One of the key factors for tourism is political stability. I
have just learned that there have been room cancellations in this
hotel, which clearly were caused by the recent violence," Joop
said after a seminar at the five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel
yesterday.

But, the hotel's spokeswoman, Renata Sofjan, said that
according to Hyatt's worldwide reservation system, the
cancellation figures are reasonable and not caused entirely by
the riots.

A number of office buildings and shopping centers in the
city's major business districts were evacuated following a series
of bomb threats. The threats, which began on Monday, also
occurred yesterday at offices, shopping centers and government
buildings, but not hotels. Military officers have since been seen
guarding buildings in the business districts.

Several star-rated hotel executives told The Jakarta Post that
they had not been hit hard by cancellations.

Executives from the Regent Jakarta, Hotel Indonesia, Jakarta
Hilton International and Equatorial Jakarta said that it was
business as usual.

A manager of the Mandarin Hotel in Central Jakarta, however,
said that his hotel had received dozens of cancellations.

"The guests, mostly from Singapore and Australia, said that
they were afraid of visiting Jakarta at the moment."

Meanwhile, tour operators in the city said that there would
not be an immediate impact on foreign tourists arrivals in
Indonesia.

A director of Golden Rama Tour, Praya Haditono, said that the
impact would be known only next month.

An executive at Smailing Tour, Eddy Djaja, said: "I think the
people overseas are now aware that everything is under control."

The number of foreign tourist arrivals is usually higher in
the July-December period than in the first semester.

Joop said that foreign tourist arrivals through the seven
international gateways in January-June increased by 20.9 percent
over the corresponding period last year to 1,988,184.

There were 1,643,993 foreign tourists entering Indonesia in
the January-June period in 1995 through Batam island, Entikong of
West Kalimantan, Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, the Ngurah
Rai airport in Bali, the Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra,
the Samratulangi airport in Manado, North Sulawesi and the Juanda
airport in Surabaya, East Java.

Visitor arrivals in June alone increased by 25.8 percent over
June 1995 to 360,969, boosted by the Indonesia Air Show. The
growth rate in June, however, was a bit less than the 27.7
percent rise in May and much lower than the 33.6 percent increase
in March.

Joop said that tourist arrivals throughout this year are
likely to approach 5.2 million if the situation is stable during
the current second semester and if the 20.9-percent growth in the
first semester can be retained.

Tourist arrivals last year grew by some 7 percent to reach 4.7
million, bringing in US$52 billion in foreign exchange. The
country expects to earn between $6.57 billion and $6.94 billion
on 4.78 million to 5.05 million foreign tourists this year. (icn)