Govt urged to rethink flight plan

Govt urged to rethink flight plan

YOGYAKARTA: Gadjah Mada University's Center for Tourism Studies called on the Yogyakarta provincial government on Thursday to reconsider its plan to change the Yogyakarta-Singapore and Yogyakarta-Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) flight schedules, arguing that the plan would hurt tourism in the area.

Earlier this week, Yogyakarta's provincial secretary Bambang Susanto Priyohadi announced the provincial government was planning to increase the flight frequency to both cities from three times a week to daily.

The government was also considering changing the flight schedules to allow same-day return flights from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, with the flights leaving Yogyakarta in the evening and returning to the city the next morning.

"Increasing the frequency of the flights is an innovative breakthrough, but changing the schedules has the potential of encouraging tourists from both countries not to spend a night in Yogyakarta because they can flight back on the same day in the evening," center director Hendrie Adji Kusworo said.

If this was the case, Adji said, tourist-related businesses in the city, especially hotels and motels, would lose out.

Meanwhile, Yogyakarta tourists who wanted a one-day visit to either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, would be forced to spend at least one night overseas because there would be no evening return flight, he said.

"This would mean that not just the tourism industry in Yogyakarta would be disadvantaged but that Yogyakarta tourists would also be adversely affected." --JP