Heal thyself or seek support?
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