Hoteliers worry about declining tourist business
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As the tourism industry in the city is still battling the negative impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the industry is bracing for another difficult time in business, following the emergence of anti-Israel and America sentiments in the country.
Protests here in Jakarta against Israel's military offensives against the Palestinians incites fears from hotel operators that such protests may further scare away tourists, especially those from North America and European countries.
"The growing concern over security may worsen the hotel business," said Abdul Kohar, director of sales and marketing of Horison Hotel and Raddin Ancol Hotel in Ancol, North Jakarta.
Abdul predicted that the hotel industry would not grow and would remain in teetering condition.
Jakarta Tourism Office had earlier warned that the worsening security in the capital could cause a decline by 10 percent of foreign tourists' arrivals.
The current situation would surely confirm the prediction as the anti-American sentiments came in time when Jakarta was expecting more tourists from North America and Europe.
According to data at the Jakarta Tourism Office, the number of tourists from European countries increased to 313,371 last year from 192,222 in 2000, while American visitors slightly increased to 60,585 from 59,349.
Overall, foreign tourist arrivals slightly declined to 1,187,385 last year from 1,187,776 the previous year.
Data at the Ministry of Tourism shows that around 5.15 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year. It fell short of the target of 5.4 million.
M.A. Hanifah, the head of market analysis center of the Jakarta Tourism Office, revealed that the growing concern on security might also cause suspension of many business activities, and eventually reduce the number of visitors from other Asian countries.
Citing his office data, Hanifah unveiled that 40 percent of Asian tourists visiting Jakarta in the past few years were for business affairs, and not for holidays.
Meanwhile, most tourists from United States and European countries had holiday motives when visiting Jakarta, Hanifah said.
However, five-starred Hotel Mulia Senayan revealed that thus far the growing protest against Israel here had yet affected its operation.
Ratna Sjamsiar Idris, Mulia's public relation manager, said that no reports of cancellation from the hotel's booking visitors.
"There is no impact of the rumor to the hotel operation though 80 percent of our visitors are expatriates," she said.
"Most of them have a long stay here, mainly for business purposes," she said.
Nevertheless, she acknowledged that should the situation turn to worse, this would surely affect hotel businesses.
The damaging impact of the security concerns in the capital could actually be mitigated by the government's strong commitment to uphold law and order and the hotels' improvement in services, according to Abdul Kohar.
"We must deal with this problem, not only security problems but also improving our services to tourists," he said in a media gathering to announce the alliance between Horison Hotel and Raddin Ancol Hotel.
Raddin and Horison Hotels are now under single management following the acquisition of the later's majority stake by Raddin's owner, publicly listed PT Jakarta Setiabudi International in September last year.