Haze affects tourism, aviation industries

Haze affects tourism, aviation industries

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Haze from forest fires has become a serious
threat to Indonesia's tourism industry because fewer foreigners
are visiting the archipelago due to extensive international
reporting on the situation.

But, believe it or not, local airline companies consider the
situation a blessing in disguise.

Director General of Tourism Andi Mappi Sammeng told The
Jakarta Post here over the weekend that international tourist
arrivals in Indonesia were still increasing, but the growth rate
was not high enough.

"The growth rate must reach at least 5 percent to meet this
year's target of 5.3 million foreign visitors. However,
international tourist arrivals are up only 3.7 percent over the
first nine months this year compared to 1996."

"This means we have to work very hard in 1998. There must be a
growth rate of between 13 percent and 20 percent to reach the
target of between 6 million and 6.5 million overseas visitors
next year," he said.

He said the government had anticipated a fall in foreign
tourist arrivals in the first semester of this year, but not in
the following months.

"We forecast fewer visitors to Indonesia in the first six
months of 1997 due to political reasons during the general
election in May," he said.

But he said he had not expected the forest fires in Kalimantan
and Sumatra would create another drastic drop in tourist
arrivals.

The fires have caused serious haze problems not only in
Sumatra and Kalimantan but also in Malaysia and Singapore.

Many travelers and tour groups from European and Asian nations
have canceled trips to Indonesia because of the haze problem.

In the January to September period this year 3.2 million
tourists visited Indonesia and spent some US$4.2 billion.

Last year, the country earned $5.13 billion in foreign
exchange from five million tourists.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said
the decrease had also hit Bali, the country's most popular
tourist destination.

He said foreign tourist arrivals in Bali fell 10 percent in
October, the biggest drop so far.

"The tourism industry should learn a lesson from this." Antara
news agency quoted Joop as saying in Denpasar, Bali, over the
weekend.

The unfavorable climate in the tourism industry has forced the
government to lower its foreign tourist arrivals target for this
year.

According to new data provided by the Ministry of Tourism,
Post and Telecommunications, about 5.19 million foreign tourists
will visit the country this year.

The original projection was between 5.3 million and 5.7
million arrivals.

Revenue generated from the foreign tourists will total about
$6.5 billion this year.

The initial projection was between $6.64 billion and $7.14
billion.

Foreign tourist arrivals are also projected to decline next
year, to 5.7 million from an original target of between 6 million
and 6.5 million.

Foreign exchange from tourism next year is expected to total
about $7.14 billion, less than the original target of between
$7.51 billion and $8.14 billion.

Aviation

The Indonesian National Air Carrier Association (INACA) says
the haze has been a blessing in disguise for the country's
scheduled airlines.

The association's chairman, Soelarto Hadisumarto, told the
Post that thousands of flights had been canceled because of the
haze.

"But this is just a kind of blessing in disguise for the
airlines," he said.

INACA groups cargo, state-owned, private and commercial air
carriers including six domestic scheduled airlines, Garuda
Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Bouraq Indonesia, Mandala
Airlines, Sempati Air and Dirgantara Air Service.

At least 3,372 flights were canceled in Sumatra and Kalimantan
during August and September.

Nine hundred and fifty-nine flights were canceled in Pontianak
in West Kalimantan, 568 in Samarinda in East Kalimantan and 358
in Padang, West Sumatra.

Cancellations meant operating costs were less because there
were not usually enough passengers flying to those destinations,
he said.

"The costs of our operations are still so high that sometimes
we suffer losses.

"We also suffer losses when we cancel flights, but the amount
is quite small compared to the operational costs," Soelarto said.

He said the low government-set airfares caused operational
losses.

Airfares were set at an average of eight U.S. cents per seat
per kilometer, much lower than the 13 U.S. cents per seat per
kilometer charged by overseas airlines.

"Ideally, it should be at least 16 U.S. cents per seat per
kilometer to enable the airline industry to progress," he said.

Domestic economy airfares were raised 10 percent on Oct. 27 to
offset the rupiah's sharp depreciation against the U.S. dollar.

But Soelarto said the increase was still not enough to offset
the high operational costs.