Govt asked to give clear infofmation on bird flu

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tourism industry players have called on the government to be more transparent in informing the public about the bird flu outbreak to avoid confusion that could be harmful to the industry.

Although the country's tourism sector is yet to experience a significant impact from the outbreak, Indonesian Hotel and Restaurants Association (PHRI) chairwoman Yanti Sukamdani Hardjoparkoso said the industry could face another downturn as it did in 2003 -- when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) swept across Asia, including Indonesia -- if the government failed to seriously handle the situation.

"Look at what happened to Ragunan Zoo," Yanti told The Jakarta Post on Friday. "People may never want to visit the zoo again after the government was so wishy-washy about whether the place was safe from bird flu or not."

The government closed down the zoo in South Jakarta for 21 days starting Sept. 19 after they found 19 birds in the 140- hectare zoo had been infected with bird flu.

Four people with bird flu have died since July and two children died this week after showing symptoms of the virus.

Yanti said the government needed to assess the situation and take preventive measures -- including specifying tourist destinations that should be avoided for the meantime -- rather than waiting for a tourist to fall ill, which would only do the tourism industry more harm.

"Tourists are actually more afraid of -- and more likely to be traumatized -- by the outbreak of a disease than a terror attack,

"It is always more difficult and costly to restore the good image of a tourist destination afterward, than (to take measures) before it is tarnished," she said.

Similarly, the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) chairwoman Meity Robot said the government needed to step up its efforts in preventing and tackling the bird flu outbreak, before it worsened and really turned into another nightmare for the tourism sector.

"The government must, most importantly, provide clearer and more complete information on the situation to the public and be resolute in taking preventive measures against the outbreak," she said.

The government has been hoping to attract six million foreign tourists this year, which would generate US$5.8 billion in foreign exchange from the industry -- higher than last year's 5.3 million tourists and $5 billion in revenues.

The number of foreign arrivals during the year's first seven months was 2.45 million, according to the Central Statistics Agency, down 4.08 percent from the same period in 2004.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik told Dow Jones Newswire that the bird flu outbreak would bring little affect to the tourism sector. He was still upbeat that the country's tourism sector would meet its target.

Indonesia's tourism sector has been in the doldrums since the Bali bombings in 2002, and terror attacks on the JW Marriott Hotel and the Australian Embassy, both in South Jakarta, the following years, scared off potential tourists.

At the same time, a series of SARS and influenza epidemics in the region, as well as the Dec. 26 tsunami, made things worse for the sector.

The occupancy rates of hotels in the country dropped from an average of 55 percent to 30 percent during the SARS outbreak, PHRI said.

Despite the government's earlier warning that the outbreak could turn into an epidemic, several foreign embassies are yet to issue travel advisories to their citizens concerning the bird flu.

The Japanese Embassy has notified Japanese citizens of the bird flu outbreak, but it has not issued an advisory suggesting they defer travel to the country."There are no plans to issue a travel warning yet," an embassy official said.

Elizabeth O'Neill of the Australian Embassy said her government had asked -- in its latest travel bulletin -- Australians residing in avian-influenza-affected areas not to panic and to take precautionary measures.

"We will continue to keep close contact with the Indonesian government and the World Health Organization, and update Australian citizens about the situation," she said.

There are more Japanese and Australian tourists here than visitors of any other nationality.