PATA conference opens as crisis hits tourism
Rita A. Widiadana and Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
President Megawati Soekarnoputri opened on Monday a key Asia Pacific travel conference on the resort island of Bali as the region's tourism industry was being threatened by international terrorism and a new deadly flu-like disease.
Some 972 delegates from 42 countries attended the opening ceremony of the 52nd Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) annual conference -- a surprising turnout -- as many other international conferences in the region were canceled recently due to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
In her speech, Megawati acknowledged that acts of terrorism, like the Oct. 12 Bali bomb blasts, had caused a serious blow to the country's tourism sector, a major foreign exchange earner.
She said her government was determined to act against terrorism.
However, she criticized foreign governments for reacting excessively by imposing travel warnings against Indonesia following the bombings, saying that such a move would harm the country's economic life.
"Now we can see that such excessively protective policy, which tends to be indicative of phobia, does not necessarily diminish the threat of terrorism. Rather, it has become detrimental to economic life," Megawati stated.
She did not name specific nations, but the governments of Australia, Britain, and the U.S. have cautioned their citizens against traveling to Indonesia.
Megawati also criticized disproportionate media reports that often inflicted great losses on the Indonesian tourist industry.
"I would like to invite you to visit any part of Indonesia, not only Bali, to see with your own eyes the living conditions of our people," she lamented.
She said that the tourism sector also had a direct, positive impact on small- and medium-scale enterprises.
"Tourism seems to function as a locomotive (for) poverty eradication and the (improvement) of public welfare," she said.
Tourism, at present, is still the second-largest, non-oil and gas foreign exchange earner for Indonesia after the textile and garment industry. Before the Oct. 12 Bali blasts, tourism generated US$ 5.4 billion in revenue, of which some 30 percent came from Bali. In 2002, the revenue from tourism dropped to $4.3 billion. Tourist arrivals to Indonesia dropped from 5.15 million visitors in 2001 to 5.03 million in 2002.
Foreign travelers are also now being discouraged from visiting the region, perceived as the center of the SARS outbreak, which has killed over 140 worldwide.
Analysts have said that the impact of SARS will be much more damaging than that of the war in Iraq, which also scared foreign travelers away amid fears of anti-Western sentiment.
Because of the war and SARS, the government of Indonesia has lowered its revenue target from the tourism sector this year to between $.27 billion and $3.2 billion this year, with the number of foreign visitors likely to decline to between 3.9 million and 4.5 million.
Meanwhile, PATA president Peter de Jong urged members to play an active role in resolving controversial issues plaguing the industry.
"We must educate governments, industry and consumers in our source markets about the facts and realities of each Asia Pacific destination.
"This, in turn, will help governments, business partners and our customers to make informed decisions about travel to and through our region," said de Jong.
He stressed that terrorism had no boundaries and could strike anyone, anytime, anywhere, even in Bali.
De Jong said that this year was the year of punishment for the global tourism industry because of the terror threat and the spread of SARS, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.
The PATA conference is expected to produce a blueprint on crisis management for the travel and tourism industry.