Provinces will have greater say in tourism, official says

By I. Christianto

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Local authorities will have a greater say in developing the tourism industry under the newly approved Law on Regional Autonomy, according to a senior tourism official.

Director General of Tourism I. Gede Ardika said here on Wednesday that the new law, which is still waiting for the President's endorsement, gave the authorities at provincial and regency levels the power to decide what kinds of tourism projects should receive first priority.

"The directorate general will only prepare the national master plan on tourism," he told a seminar at the Bali Travel Mart.

He said each province would be able develop its own tourist industry, including the promotion of tourist sites both at home and overseas.

The House of Representatives passed last April Regional Autonomy Law No. 22/1999, which allows regional administrations and legislatures to manage their own affairs as well increasing their freedom and responsibility.

The House has also approved the Law on Intergovernmental Fiscal Balance to allow local authorities to gain larger parts of state revenue from local resources. Both laws will not become effective until one year after the President's endorsement.

Ardika said that local authorities would arrange many things themselves, for instance, choosing and developing a product.

Licensing would also be the responsibility of local authorities, while general affairs like security and safety or hotel classification would still be handled nationally, he said.

"I am convinced the next government will continue this policy since it has already been passed by the House. There has been several steps in preparing the regional autonomy law, in which each of the 27 provinces in Indonesia has a district as a pilot project," Ardika said.

Indonesia is likely to have a new government after the presidential election in November, following the recent general election.

Weak enforcement

I. Gede Pitana, another speaker at the seminar, said Bali should be proud to have a master plan for tourism development.

"Unfortunately, the master plan has not been followed by with detailed plans, except in some areas. The enforcement of the plan, if there is any, is weak," he continued.

Pitana, who is the secretary of the Research Center for Culture and Tourism at Bali's Udayana University, said the result was unplanned, sporadic physical development, causing problems such as massive land conversion, water shortages, traffic jams, air pollution, forced land acquisition, chained beach abrasion and marginalization of the local population.

"At the end, this model destroyed the physical environment of the island," he said.

He admitted that tourism has significantly improved the prosperity of the population in this culturally rich island.

Speaking about "reinventing" Bali, Pitana said there should be a reinvention and reinterpretation of cultural tourism.

"Internal balance among culture, economics and the environment must be sought. This is the implementation of the concept of sus tainable tourism development in a Balinese context," he said, adding that popular participation was a key for sustainable tour ism development.