PHRI predicts gloomy year for tourism
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian tourism may suffer again this year from the political impact of the upcoming presidential election in March, the chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), Pontjo Sutowo, has said.
Uncertainty over the presidential election during the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) meeting in March might make prospective tourists cancel or delay their trips to come here for fear of social unrest, Pontjo said Thursday.
Members of MPR, mostly made up of members of the House of Representatives, will elect a new president and approve the State Policy Guidelines during the March meeting. The dominant Golkar political faction said it would support the reelection of Soeharto, which has ruled the country for three decades.
"Social unrest is the worse enemy of tourism," Pontjo said after the association's breaking of the fast ceremony.
The economic turmoil which had hit several Asian countries, dropping the value of their currencies, would also continue to contribute to the dismal prospects of tourism, at least in the first half of this year, he said.
Last year, the growth in the number of foreign tourist arrivals fell to its lowest level in a decade due partly to the haze problem, which blanketed most parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra in the second half of last year, and sporadic riots ahead of the general election in May.
Tourists from Asia made up 40 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals, he said.
Pontjo said many star-rated hotels had suffered more from the crisis than non-star hotels.
Star-rated hotels, which charged in U.S. dollars, had already lost their domestic market, he said.
He did not say how far occupancy rates had dropped during the monetary crisis, which has seen the rupiah's value fall 75 percent against the dollar.
However, non-star hotels have been benefiting from the crisis, he said.
These hotels, which charged their customers in rupiah, had grabbed the domestic market, he said.
Pontjo said the Indonesian hotel industry must adjust to the economic turmoil in order to lure visitors from the region again.
"One way of doing it is by using the Asian currency basket," he said.
He said the exchange rate should be adjusted to the average of the Asian currencies to the U.S. dollar.
The measure could be done with the cooperation of other countries in the region, he said. The measure could use instruments such as vouchers.
"If we do not adjust to the decrease (of arrivals) from Asian countries, our market could be grabbed by other countries in the region which are more competitive than us," he said.
He said the measure could make inter-Asian traveling similar to domestic traveling.
"We can persuade Malaysians who cannot afford to go to London, for example, to go to Indonesia instead," he said. (das)