Indonesia urged to launch major tourism campaign

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign tourism experts called on the Indonesian government to launch a major tourism campaign overseas in a bid to mend the country's tainted international image.

Pierre-Etienne Vaernewyck, the economic and commercial attache of the Royal Belgian Embassy said on Thursday that Indonesia's lack of adequate tourism promotion had resulted in misperceptions about the country.

"Many people in Belgium thought Indonesia has only very modest facilities to offer. They don't know that Indonesia in fact has modern and luxurious facilities. Your country has to give more and complete information on the facilities, too," he said.

The director of the Austrian National Tourist Office in Jakarta, Oskar Andesner, said Indonesia was less known than Bali due to incomprehensive information released to overseas markets, including Austria.

"Indonesia was previously not well-known in Austria. Now we know more about Indonesia, not as a tourism spot but because of the headlines in the media," he said, referring to the vast coverage by foreign media on the latest developments of political situations in Indonesia.

Andesner said Indonesia had to improve its promotion and public relations to encourage foreigners to visit the various areas that the country has to offer.

"The most important thing here is perhaps for the government to exercise an open sky policy to allow foreign airlines to fly directly to tourist destinations other than Jakarta," he said.

Vaernewyck said many airlines from Western countries were seeking an opportunity to fly directly to Bali.

"Direct flights to tourist destinations would make traveling more convenient for foreign tourists and thus encourage more people to visit the area," he told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting on Indonesian tourism held by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

Andesner confirmed Vaernewyck's statement, saying that the number of Austrians who visited Thailand had jumped four times after Austria's airline opened a direct flight route to Bangkok and Phuket a couple years ago.

He said Austria was perhaps the only European country with direct access to Bali at present. Its private airline, Lauda Air, flies twice a week from Vienna.

Lauda Air was seeking permission to increase its flight service to Bali due to a high passenger demand, he added.

In order to attract more tourists to Indonesia, the government should improve its overseas promotion on destination areas other than Jakarta and Bali, said Grels Zakrisson, the counsellor of commercial affairs at the Embassy of Sweden.

"Apart from Bali, Indonesia is rather unknown. Promotion and information are the most important. Your embassies around the world should increase promotion to media in their respective areas," he said. Vaernewyck also said that Indonesia should inform the foreign public about recent positive developments in the country's political condition to erase the foreign misperceptions of Indonesia.

"You must tell (the foreign public) that Indonesia is safe again... Tourists will certainly return to Indonesia," he said, referring to the establishment of the new government under the leadership of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia dropped to 3.5 million in 1998 from 5.1 million in 1997 due to escalating political instability.

In line with positive developments during the last couple months, the government revised its forecast of total inbound arrivals this year to about 5 million from an initial estimation of between 3.9 million and 4.4 million.

Inbound arrivals in November are predicted to reach 354,500 tourists and 404,530 in December. (cst)