Lack of plane seats may affect Indonesia's tourism target
Lack of plane seats may affect Indonesia's tourism target
By Tantri Yuliandini
SINGAPORE (JP): The Indonesian government may fall short of
its goal of attracting seven million foreign tourists a year by
2004 due to a lack of available seats on foreign and local
airlines, a senior official said here.
A senior adviser to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Udin
Saifuddin, said a lack of coordination between his ministry and
the Ministry of Communications, especially the Directorate
General of Air Communications, was one of the reasons for the
stunted growth of air transportation in the country.
"Both ministries have different perspectives in viewing air
transportation, they (the Ministry of Communications) have their
own aims and targets and we have our own, and at times they don't
match," he said on the sidelines of an aviation workshop for
journalists organized by Singapore Airlines (SIA) here last week.
About 60 percent of foreign tourists coming into Indonesia use
air transportation facilities from their respective countries,
Udin said, making it one of the most important factors in the
development of tourism in the country.
In order to attract more tourists to the country, a sufficient
number of airline seats need to be available, he said, adding
that a minimum of two seats per tourist were needed to adequately
service them.
At the end of last year the total air seat capacity to and
from Indonesia for both local and foreign airlines was 11.5
million seats, he said.
While this figure may suffice now, it will not be enough to
fulfill the needs of tourists in 2004, Udin said, adding that the
figure is about five million seats short of an ideal service
rate.
In the meantime, adding additional flights to routes is
difficult and foreign airlines are reluctant to expand their
services to in Indonesia.
Udin said one of the reasons for the difficulty in increasing
flight frequency was the reluctance of the Ministry of
Communications to give its approval for this step, reasoning that
local airlines would find it difficult to compete.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has no influence in
determining which airlines operate in Indonesia and the number of
flights they can service.
SIA general manager for Indonesia Raja Segran said the
company's subsidiary, SilkAir, approached the Ministry of
Communications about adding more flights to its Denpasar-
Singapore route, but was turned down on the basis that it would
be difficult for local airlines to compete.
Udin acknowledged the government's desire to protect local
airlines was understandable, but said that in the long run it
would not benefit the airline industry.
To be able to improve, an industry must not always have the
government's protection. The more an industry is open to
competition, the faster the industry will grow, he explained.
Furthermore, the country's political and economic situation
has also contributed to the stunted growth of the industry, with
many foreign airlines opting to wait for a more favorable time to
expand their flight routes to and in Indonesia.
Segran said earlier the potential for tourism in many parts of
Indonesia was very high, but added that SIA and SilkAir had no
plan to fly on these potential routes in the near future as they
were not yet economically viable.
In fact, SilkAir's flights to Lombok, for example, have not
made a profit from the first day of operation, he said during
the workshop, explaining that the route was maintained as part
of the airline's agreement with the government of Indonesia.
At present there are about 31 foreign airlines serving
Indonesia, including SIA, Malaysian Airlines, Taiwan's EVA Air,
Saudi Arabian Airlines and Australia's Qantas, Udin said.