Jakarta expects more than 1.6m tourists in 1997

JAKARTA (JP): The upcoming general election will slow down exhibitions and conventions, both major tourist attractions here, but the city still expects more than 1.6 million visitors this year, the head of the tourist agency said.

This would be an 8 percent increase from last year, Fauzi Bowo said over the weekend.

He said the city had more than 1.5 million visitors last year.

"This was a 24 percent increase from 1.2 million in 1995, which was exceptional," Fauzi said.

"This year, I don't want to be too optimistic. First, we have the general election, which will certainly slow down activities.

"If the number of visitors grows by 8 percent, it's good enough," he said, adding the number of tourists will increase soon after the May elections.

"We will catch up to our target," he said.

He pointed out that exhibitions and conventions attracted many tourists, and foreign participants are mostly generous spenders.

"Common tourists usually spend about US$200 per day, while tourists who are convention participants, can spend twice or three times more," Fauzi said.

Jakarta's tourist sector is trying to optimize its facilities for participants in meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE).

The management of the Jakarta Hilton International Hotel earlier said MICE-related activities contributed 11 percent of the hotel's revenue in 1996, up from 4 percent in 1995.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja revealed while announcing the city budget last week that revenue from the tourist sector increased every year.

In 1992, tourism contributed $1.2 billion to the city and rose to $2.1 billion in 1995, he said.

"In 1996, tourism contributed $2.5 billion," Surjadi said.

Surjadi said a lack of international promotion of the city was one of the main problems in tourism here.

"Promotion in other countries, especially newly developed countries, should be well-planned," Surjadi said.

Promotion should be integrated with other promotion activities, such as trade and cultural promotions, he added.

By 2005, visitors to Jakarta are expected to reach seven million people.

In the 1997/1998 fiscal year, the city allotted Rp 21.3 billion (US$9 million) of its budget to tourism and telecommunications.

Fauzi urged people involved in tourism to improve their services. He said Jakarta cannot only attract tourists with its low-priced branded products or wide choice of goods.

"Good services also have an important role in attracting tourists," Fauzi said.

He lamented the attitude of several people in the business whom he said tend to ignore prospective customers.

"Some of them simply think: if people don't want to buy, let it be," Fauzi said. Services are equally important to promotion, he added.

Fauzi said the tourist industry would continue to develop given the increasing number of hotels.

In 1996, the city recorded 37 new hotels, which started construction or requested construction permits, with 4,681 rooms.

As of last year, the city had 76 hotels with 16,430 rooms.

Of the 76 hotels, four are five-star diamond hotels with 2,604 rooms, six are five-star hotels with 2,725 rooms, and 11 are four-star hotels with 3,693 rooms. Twenty-one are three-star hotels with 3,142 rooms, 19 two-star hotels with 3,390 rooms, and 15 one-star hotels with 876 rooms. (ste)