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.