RI tourism feels the pinch of weak yen

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of Japanese tourist arrivals in Indonesia, particularly Bali, is expected to continue to drop over the next three months due to the current weakening of the yen, according to the Association of Indonesian Travel Agents (ASITA).

The falling yen will give the Japanese, already jittery after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, another excuse to stay home.

"There has been no recovery yet in the number of tourists coming from Japan to Bali since the Sept. 11 attacks," head of ASITA's Bali chapter IGB Yudhara told The Jakarta Post Friday.

Bali is the number one indicator of the health of this country's tourism industry.

Yudhara said that about 20 percent of all foreign tourists to Bali came from Japan.

The yen has fallen more than 10 percent in the past two months, with the decline accelerating in recent days.

The Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) said earlier that the number of Japanese traveling overseas fell by 41.9 percent in November amid fears that emerged in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

JNTO said that the decline was likely to continue in the coming months due to the weakening yen.

"In general, a weak yen is negative for the industry because it makes prices abroad more expensive and Japanese tourists may not be attracted to shopping abroad," a spokeswoman for Japan's second biggest travel agency, Kinki Nippon Tourist, said as quoted by Reuters.

The Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said in its January report that tourist arrivals in Bali between January and November had decreased by 2.26 percent to 1.33 million compared with the previous year.

The monthly BPS report also showed that tourist arrivals through the 13 main points of entry fell by 2.36 percent to 304,000 in November compared to the previous month's figure of 311,000 arrivals.

From January to November, the number of tourists was recorded at 3.88 million.

Yudhara, however, expressed confidence that tourist arrivals would start to recover in April.

"Japanese tourists will continue to prioritize Asian countries, especially Bali, as their main travel destination countries in the future," he said.

The reason was that many would-be Japanese tourists were still nervous about visiting the United States and European countries after the Sept.11 attacks, he said.

The government earlier said that it would focus its marketing and promotion on Asia and Australia this year due to the decrease in the number of visitors from the United States and Europe.

The government projected the number of foreign visitors in 2002 would reach between 5.4 and 5.8 million, compared to the 5.1 million visitor target set last year.