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.