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