People prefer to stay at home amid fears of chaos
JAKARTA (JP): Despite the fear of chaos in connection with the planned mass prayer on Sunday and the House of Representatives (DPR) plenary session on Monday, there has been no significant increase in the number of residents leaving the city due to security concerns, a number of travel agents said on Tuesday.
"As of today, we have yet to see any extraordinary rise in the number of people who want to travel (out of Jakarta)," Eti Marta of the KIA Tour travel agency told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
However, she said that there was a slight increase in the number of people leaving for the U.S. to take up employment while some customers have booked tour packages to Korea and Bali.
"But I don't think they left the capital for security reasons. Many people might have had second thoughts about doing so due to the hike in the dollar exchange rate," she said.
On Sunday, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization is scheduled to hold an istigosah, or mass prayer meeting, in the east parking lot of the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Central Jakarta. The event will take place on the eve of a House plenary session which is likely to rebuke President Abdurrahman Wahid for a second time.
Cilly of the Bayu Buana Tour travel agency also said that she had seen no drastic jump in the number of travelers booking trips abroad this week.
She said her customers mostly took two- or three-day package tours to Singapore. "They will be coming back before April 29. This means that the threat of disturbances is not the reason why they are leaving the capital," she said.
The Bimatama Tour travel agency had a different story to tell. Secretary to the managing director Liana said that since Monday, the firm had been enjoying robust business and the number of travelers departing the city had increased by 50 percent.
She said most of them were taking week-long package tours to Australia and Bangkok.
Christian of Smiling Tour said his travel agency had yet to see any significant increase. He even predicted pessimistically that there would be no jump in the number of people traveling abroad until next week. He also said the weak rupiah was preventing people from traveling abroad.
Wilman of Panen Tour even said many residents were afraid of traveling. "They might prefer to staying home for security reasons," he said.
Hilton hotel spokeswoman Fatiah Syarif also told the Post that there had been no sharp increase in the hotel's occupancy rate. "It's just so so." The occupancy rate still ranged between 25 percent and 35 percent for its 1,104 rooms and suites.
She added that if massive rallies were to take place in the capital, the number of hotel guests would drop even further as access routes to the hotel usually became the scene of demonstrations.
The occupancy rate at the Shangri-La hotel had increased from 18 percent to 30 percent on Tuesday. But the hotel's senior manager Wastu Widanto told the Post that the increase had nothing to do with the fear of disturbances.
"The istigosah and DPR plenary session will take place on Sunday and Monday respectively. The Shangri-La's occupancy rate usually drops at the weekend. So it's difficult for us to anticipate whether the rumors will result in an increase or a decrease in our occupancy rate," he said.(01)