Lombok isle slowly stretches to meet tourism boom

By Prapti Widinugraheni

SENGGIGI, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): The tiny island of Lombok, with its sunny skies, white sandy beaches and swaying palm trees, is a perfect portrayal of a tranquil, unspoiled tropical paradise.

However, people are beginning to wonder how long it will take before Lombok -- said to be a replica of Bali 20 years ago -- catches the contagious "tourism boom" virus from its bustling neighbor.

"We hope it will take at least three times more than the time Bali needed to reach its present condition. If Bali required 30 years to reach this stage, hopefully Lombok will take at least 100 years," said West Nusa Tenggara Governor Warsito.

Warsito has a point.

While people cannot help but compare the two neighboring islands, which only differ slightly in terms of population and area, Lombok, unlike its artistically rich and culturally enchanting next-door neighbor, relies almost entirely on its attractive landscapes, and a bit on its weaving and ceramics arts and crafts, to lure passing travelers.

This, plus the fact that Lombok consists of a predominant Moslem society which may help hold off the "negative impacts" of a booming tourist industry, is perhaps why Warsito is so optimistic that Lombok will not immediately follow Bali, which many travelers now consider spoiled by the tourism industry.

According to the local tourism office, the total number of foreign and domestic travelers visiting the province increased from 123,294 in 1989 to 247,349 in 1993.

Over this period, the number of foreign tourists alone has increased by almost 30 percent a year from 56,148 (only 45 percent of the total number of tourists in 1989) to 140,442 (almost 57 percent of the total) in 1993.

Last year the office recorded a total of 279,092 travelers, or a 12.8 percent increase compared to 1993. From this number, 55 percent were foreigners.

In comparison, the number of foreign travelers that visited Bali in 1989, according to Bali's immigration office, was 436,358 and has grown by an average of almost 20 percent to 884,206 in 1993.

Lombok's modest record may also be a reflection of the local government's slow-paced tourism development policy.

Its target to increase the number of travelers by an average of only 15 to 18 percent to reach 1.9 million to 2 million travelers in 1998, confirms this notion.

In spite of what seems to be an slow-paced policy for Lombok's tourism development, local authorities intend to make Lombok, and the other islands in the West Nusa Tenggara province, a major tourist destination in the near future.

Head of West Nusa Tenggara's local tourism office, Baharuddin Anwar, said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post that one of the province's targets is to make the area a definite tourist destination and not only transshipment point for travelers.

"We have already stipulated 15 tourist regions for the province. Nine regions are on Lombok and include famous spots such as Senggigi in the west and Kuta in the south of the island," he said. West Nusa Tenggara comprises Lombok and Sumbawa and the smaller islands in between.

Monitoring

The regions, he said, will be "professionally" managed to allow close monitoring and control and to prevent the unwanted destruction and "negative impacts" of tourism.

Although efforts to develop Lombok's tourism started as early as the 1980s, a significant boom -- at least in terms of increased land prices in strategic tourist areas -- was not felt until the early 1990s.

During that time, wealthy big shots from Jakarta started eying the region once they recognized its potential tourism capacity.

The Lombok Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC) and the Sira Tourism Development Corporation, both owned by Jakarta tycoons, were given rights by the local government to conduct land appropriations for some 600 hectares of land in Senggigi, West Lombok, and 1,250 hectares in Kuta in the southern part of Central Lombok.

These areas were set up with basic infrastructure facilities by the government, and were quickly plotted out by prospective hoteliers, restaurant developers and shop owners.

According to the province's investment coordinating board, as of June a total of Rp 1.3 trillion (US$584 million) and $59.8 million has been planned as investments for the tourism industry since the start of the first Five Year Development program in 1969.

However, only Rp 429.5 billion and $11.7 million, mostly for hotel and cottage development, has been realized so far.

A handbook on tourism development issued by the local tourism office reported that a number of projects faced difficulties in land appropriation procedures, infrastructure facilities and social problems.

Travel agencies have sprung up, offering tours starting from short trips to the small islands around Lombok to trekking up the island's highest point, Mt. Rinjani.

Bing Hamidy, the manager of Bidy Tours, a long-time travel agency in Lombok, said his agency's aim is to continue boosting the foreign market since domestic tourists usually opt to use travel agencies from outside the area.

Until 1992, only 27.65 percent of the agency's clients were domestic travelers and last year the number dropped to only 21 percent.

Meanwhile, Satriavi Tours & Travel, a subsidiary of the Garuda Indonesia Group which also relies on foreign clients, is attempting to widen its domestic market.

The agency's manager, Timmy Hoevenagel, said they get their clients through Garuda and Satriavi offices overseas and accommodated 4,425 travelers last year, up from 3,689 in 1993.

Problems

Booming industries are bound to have problems and tourism in Lombok is no exception.

Land appropriation, hotel development and the "privatization" of beaches have driven local fishermen and passersby away from the exclusive areas.

A group of villagers who lived from cultivating seaweed around Tanjung Aan, in the south of Lombok, were displaced by the LTDC several years ago when the corporation decided to survey the area for a tourist site.

The villagers of Gerupuk -- about six kilometers away from Tanjung Aan -- may soon face a similar fate as signs of development approach.

Herman Effendi, a native of Gerupuk, said that villagers have no choice when wealthy land-buyers drive them off the land.

"We will just have to move on. As long as they provide us with a substitute plot of land where we can continue cultivating seaweed, there is nothing else we can ask for," he said.

The 400 families in the village, living in poverty with a serious lack of sanitation facilities, currently harvest 50 tons of dried seaweed a year, which they sell for Rp 625 to Rp 850 a kilogram to distributors.

Commenting on the situation, Baharuddin Anwar of the local tourism office said that regulations are needed from Jakarta to guarantee that the tourism industry does not neglect the public's interest.

"People must be allowed to walk along the beaches and hotels should be built far from the coastline," he said.

Buildings, he said, should be built at a distance of at least 200 meters from the shore and open spaces between hotels and buildings must also allow public access to the beaches.

"Presently hotels are built only 40 to 50 meters from the shore. Not only does this ruin the beaches, it also limits the number of people who can enjoy them. But current regulations allow this to happen," he said.

"Hopefully the central government will consider these aspects in designing regional planning guidelines," he said.