Long vacation not all fun for Jakartans as preparations poor

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakartans appreciated last week's four consecutive days off but have questioned the government's preparations to make the most out of the long weekend in its efforts to boost domestic tourism.

One major concern is how the government expects people to travel if tourism infrastructure is not conducive to taking a proper vacation.

"My family and I tried to spend some relaxing time in Puncak, but traffic congestion was so horrifying that our vacation was no fun," Benito, an employee of a private company, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He said it took him about six hours to reach Puncak, a popular tourist destination in West Java, whereas it normally took him three hours by car from his house in Tangerang, Banten province.

The government should prevent such inconveniences from occurring by preparing measures similar to those ahead of mudik (the annual mass exodus ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday), he said.

Leni, an executive with a multinational company, beat the traffic by traveling early in the morning.

"On Thursday, I left Jakarta around 3:00 a.m. because it's the only way that I could reach Bandung fast enough without being trapped in a traffic jam," she said.

She said the government should address the problem for convenience and so people relax while traveling. Moreover, it would encourage travel.

Dian, an assistant for a senior economist, used her long weekend to travel to Yogyakarta. She queried the point of shifting holidays to make weekends longer if people could not travel due to terrible transportation facilities and accessibility.

"It was hard to get a train ticket and it was obvious scalpers were taking advantage of the long weekend, and the authorities seemed to do nothing to prevent this," she said.

Such negligence would certainly discourage travel, leaving the long weekend worthless, whereas it supposedly could help the suffering tourist industry, especially people in the informal sector, she said.

"I'd like to know whether the long weekend really helped tourism. There should be a figure on that," she said.

Those who stayed in the city had other issues to face, from less customers to the envy of not having holidays like everyone else.

Aji, a street vendor of fried food, said that during the holiday, there were very few buyers around his usual spot in Palmerah, Central Jakarta, and had moved to another location near a shopping center.

"I always manage to sell most of my food. But not today," he said last Saturday.

Dadang, a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver, said the long weekend had impacted on his daily income due to a lack of customers, saying he hoped there would not be many long weekends this year.

Meanwhile, Second Brig. Sunarto, a traffic police officer, said the idea of a four-day holiday was naturally desirable. However, he could not take it due to his police duty.

"I like to have holidays like everyone else with my family, but I could not leave my duty," said the father of four children.