Many tourist resources still unexplored

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has not fully explored its resources in developing the country's tourist industry, an international economist says.

The founder and director of the Zero Emission Research Initiative (Zeri Foundation), Gunter Pauli, said Thursday most of Indonesia's resources remained unexplored.

"For the tourist sector to flourish, the country must look into the many possibilities to explore its resources," he said at the opening ceremony of the Indonesian Tourism Mart and Expo Thursday.

This involves exploring the possibility of maximizing existing natural resources, boosting other sectors of the economy, and improving the promotional approaches, he said.

"Indonesia has the most world heritages among the Asian countries," he said.

He named five attractions which had not been optimally exploited: the Borobudur and Prambanan temples, Ujung Kulon reserve, Komodo dragons and the prehistoric site of Sangiran.

The five attractions have been classified as world heritages, he said.

In his speech titled "Zero Emission in Relation with The Future of the Tourism Industry in the 21st century", Pauli said to develop tourism the country needed to improve the productivity of the whole economic system.

"Tourism can be an engine for many industries in Indonesia, not only in the service and arts and crafts industries," Pauli said.

He said Indonesia had many unexplored resources that could be used to improve the tourist industry.

For example, he said there were over 100 kinds of essential oils which could find big markets in the tourist sector.

"However, all the essential oils I have seen here are imported from England, which does not have as many resources as Indonesia," he said.

It is the same with vitamin E and bamboo, which could have large markets in the world and become attracting factors to lure tourists, he said.

He said Indonesia could be a major producer of vitamin E, but no one had shown any interest in it, he said.

He said the most important thing, however, was to maintain the sustainability of existing resources.

Indonesia had not addressed important issues in tourism such as water supply, he said.

"A foreign tourist in Bali consumes as much water in one day as a Balinese in a month.

"This is definitely not sustainable and must be addressed," he said.

He suggested Indonesia build a prototype hotel which could independently supply its own water and energy, and which must be ready for demonstration by the year 2000.

For more effective tourism promotions, Pauli suggested the creation of a website with at least 1,000 digital video clips in the style of Music Television (MTV).

"Let's face it, an MTV video clip would hold the viewers' interest longer than a national-geographic documentary," he said, adding that it would also be cheaper than making a 30-second advertisement. (das)