Heal thyself or seek support?
While in Jakarta and Surabaya recently for meetings with both national tourist industry decision-makers and their East Java counterparts, I was afforded a valuable opportunity to make a firsthand assessment of prevailing conditions and their influence on Indonesia's tourism.
It thus with considerable interest that I read Mr. Yonna Konno's very thoughtful and particularly constructive article on page four of the May 1, 1998 edition of The Jakarta Post.
Similarly, I was again impressed with a report of an address delivered by Philippine President Fidel Ramos, published in the ASEANTA Update. Probably in a less diplomatic way than did Mr. Konno, the president strongly advised all affected to "Look the crisis in the eye".
Between them, thus, two men with vision have, in their own way, called it as it is in respect to the tremendous difficulties and challenges now facing Indonesia's travel, tourism and aviation industries. In other publications, the nation's former tourism minister Joop Ave, a true tourism visionary for whom many hearts bleed now given the industry's decline, has expressed similar views.
It is to be hoped that these, and other messages are being heard and understood by those they are being sent to. Currently, there clearly are other and much greater priorities facing all who live and work in Indonesia. Such messages may therefore, and understandably, be placed in the too-hard-for-now basket, but should not be totally ignored or waved off as impractical.
Mr. Konno has a clear advantage over both President Ramos and I -- and indeed a number of others who would offer opinions and support at this particular juncture in the republic's unfolding history. The gentleman from Japan goes to work each day in one of Asia's most dynamic cities and he lives in a nation which, as have many others before, is undergoing the inevitable process of change and is now experiencing all of the disruption and dismay that this necessarily involves. Mr. Konno, thus, has an inside perspective and is a belonger, albeit temporarily.
I would not be as bold as Mr. Konno in offering specific solutions as to how once things do return to normal across Indonesia, the nation's tourist industry might begin the long, steep and very challenging road to recovery.
Rather, I would, in a further personal effort to offer support and indeed help to those Indian Ocean Tourism Organization (IOTO) members and to their travel, tourism and aviation industry counterparts throughout Indonesia, seek to raise a fundamental but significant issue.
IOTO remains strongly committed to supporting Indonesian tourism and to a destination whose people, tourist attractions and products offer a very strong base on which such a recovery effort can be built.
GRAHAM C. HORNEL
IOTO Secretary-General
Perth, Australia