Peaceful election bodes well for tourism sector: ASITA

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's tourism industry hopes the current general election will run smoothly and lead to the creation of a strong government to help revive the sector.

Coordinator of tourism department at the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA), Hasiyanna Rainier, said that a strong government was crucial to helping ensure law and order, and improving the security situation, both of which were necessary to attract foreign tourists.

"If the elections go peacefully and produce a good government, tourism in our country will increase in 2005," Hasiyanna told The Jakarta Post recently.

Meity Robot of the Indonesian Tourism Society agreed with Hasiyanna, saying that political and security stability was the basic ingredient for a successful tourism industry.

"Indonesia's tourism industry has suffered a serious decline since 1998 because tourists no longer feel safe visiting Indonesia. They see it as a country without law and order. Thus, if we really want to boost the (tourism) industry, we need to first put law and order in place," Meitty said.

The tourism industry in Indonesia started to go downhill in 1998, when the country was hit by a combination of economic and political crises

The sector was further hit by the Bali bombs in 2002, followed by the Hotel Marriott bombing in Jakarta a year later, and ethnic clashes in Maluku and Aceh.

Data from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture showed that the number of foreign tourists decreased to around 4.6 million in 1998, from 5.2 million in 1997. During the following three years, however, the figure steadily increased, reaching 5.1 million in 2001. But after the bombing incidents, the number of tourist arrivals dropped to 4.4 million in 2003.

The government is targeting an increase in the number of foreign tourists to 5 million this year.

The country has just recently held its legislative elections, which turned out to be relatively peaceful. A presidential election is slated for July 5, with a possible second round election in September if no contestant wins a majority of the vote.

Meanwhile, ASITA chairman Ben Sukma called on the government to help the tourism industry by staging more overseas promotions.

"What's has been happening is that those involved in the industry have had to conduct tourism promotions on their own without the government taking part," said Ben, adding that the sector played a highly significant role in the economy.

But Sapta Nirwandar, the secretary to the ministry of tourism and culture said that the government had been active in promoting the country's tourism sector.

As an example, the pointed out that following the Bali bombing incident the government had set up five working groups to promote Indonesia's tourism attractions in five different markets, namely, ASEAN, Japan, China, the Middle East and Australia.

"The groups were sent to the five regions to promote Indonesia and all their expenses were paid for by the government. What more do we have to do?" he asked.

The government has allocated a total of Rp 90 billion ($10.6 million) for tourism promotions this year. The working groups received around 40 percent of the total funds.

Sapta said that the future of the country's tourism industry now depended on the elections.

"If nothing happens and the elections run well, our tourism industry will see golden days ahead," he said.

Tourist arrivals in Indonesia -------------------------------------------------------------------- Year Tourists Forex Revenue (in US$) -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1997 5.18 million 5.32 billion 1998 4.60 million 4.33 billion 1999 4.73 million 4.71 billion 2000 5.06 million 5.75 billion 2001 5.15 million 5.43 billion 2002 5.03 million 4.30 billion 2003 4.44 million 4.00 billion