Holidays fail to boost tourism

Holidays fail to boost tourism

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government policy on extended holidays has failed to boost
tourism as it is not supported by sufficient transportation
infrastructure or promotion to persuade domestic tourists to
travel, a practitioner says.

Chairwoman of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel
Agencies (ASITA) Meity Robot said on Sunday the policy managed to
only slightly increase the number of tourists to Indonesia.

"Some of the problems are related to limited seat
availability: How can you go on holiday if all flights and trains
are fully booked?" Meity asked The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

She further pointed to the lack of coordination between
airlines and hotels to create attractive holiday packages for
vacationers.

"It seems that we do not speak the same language in boosting
the tourism industry," the businesswoman said.

Since the Bali bombings in October 2002, the government has
decided to prolong or shift national holidays to create long
weekends. The decision was meant to persuade domestic tourists to
take holidays and visit domestic tourist resorts around the
country.

For 2004, the government has decided to continue the policy by
announcing nine long weekends through the year.

Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Jusuf Kalla claimed
that the decision was based on resurrecting the tourism industry
following the adoption of the policy in 2003, although he did not
have any data that showed an increase.

He maintained the decision was needed not just to boost
tourism, but to improve the work efficiency of civil servants.

Meity admitted that the extended holidays had done a favor to
the tourism industry when Asia was hardest hit by Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The outbreak prevented Indonesians
from traveling aboard, she said.

However, as soon as it eased, countries such as Singapore,
Taiwan and Hongkong, which were among the worst SARS-infected
countries, began to promote their own tourist industries in a
more aggressive way than ever before, Meity said.

"They have offered packages that we cannot compete with;
together with the lack of transportation seats, people are likely
to choose to travel abroad rather than to other parts of the
country," she added.

She said that it would be unfair to say that the decision was
fruitless, but it required much more support to boost the number
of domestic tourists.

"We have produced attractive packages and are actively
promoting them to attract both domestic and foreign tourists;
otherwise, many players will just go out of business," Meity
remarked.