Tourism and the 'baby boomers'

Tourism and the 'baby boomers'

Rob Goodfellow
University of Wollongong
New South Wales
Australia

In his letter last month to The Jakarta Post, Sydney-based
Evan Willis correctly asserted that "the US$1 per day backpackers
of the 1970s are coming back to Indonesia with wives, children
and grandchildren in tow, with a family budget more like
$500/day".

This potential bonanza for Indonesian tourism is speared-
headed by the wealthy generation known as the "baby boomers" --
people born between 1945 and 1960, who are predicted to spend
their considerable retirement incomes on travel and lifestyle.

Research shows that the "baby boomers" don't intend to leave
their estates and superannuation lump sum incomes to their
children. Rather they will spend generously on themselves and on
quality pursuits such as extended foreign holidays.

Evidence indicates that this involves a desire to live within
communities. From this orientation naturally flows philanthropy
and community development. In Indonesia today there is ample
evidence of such. I know of many retired Australians who holiday
in Bali and Java every year and have long-standing friendships
with Indonesian families. This is not to mention the Europeans or
the Japanese.

Often these friendships involve timely support for families
with children and sometimes university sponsorships for young
adults. In addition here are also the business and networking
opportunities that result from such contacts.

This flow of ideas is not just one way. Thousands of
Australians such as myself have been wonderfully enriched by our
experiences of Indonesia. And so the wheel turns.

My group of friends have sponsored young Indonesians to work
and study abroad. We have even fully funded a goodwill cultural
performance. For example, last year "the Australian Friends of
ISI" (The Indonesian Art Institute) sponsored a program of
classical music that was enjoyed, at no cost, by over 1,000
ordinary people in Yogyakarta.

To add to this we have patronized local artists and
entrepreneurs, by supporting them in their early stages of
training and development. In a sense this is a consequence of my
first visit to Indonesia in 1983, when I backpacked with my wife
for two months from Java to Flores in East Nusa Tenggara -- on
free visa entry.

Last year I had the pleasure of leading an Australian
delegation to Bali to meet with the Governor Dewa Berata, and
President Megawati Soekarnoputri. At this time the issue of free
extended visas was enthusiastically discussed at a number of
levels.

This included peak tourism bodies, the local Chamber of
Commerce (Kadin) and the press. It was identified, for example,
that three to six month free visa entry, with simple provisions
for extension, could potentially attract hundreds of thousands of
cashed-up retired Australians, who wanted to escape the wet, cold
and windy eastern Australian winter months of June, July and
August and spend the tropical dry season in Bali.

As Willis suggests, the free-visa policy was a landmark for
Indonesian tourism -- it was the beginning of the great tourism
boom of the 1980s and 1990s that saw Bali and Yogyakarta grow and
prosper and engage people from Australia, Europe and the United
States.

These visitors have a special affinity for Indonesia and the
Indonesian people. Regrettably, despite all the positive spin
from the authorities, the reintroduction of a visa fee system
would have been the beginning of the end for Indonesian tourism,
and for Indonesia's opportunity to develop a relationship with
the "baby boomer" generation who genuinely desire the sort of
meaningful people to people cultural exchange that is the stuff
of enlightened globalization.

The government's decision to postpone until further notice its
controversial decision to revoke its visa-free policy will be a
huge relief to the struggling tourism sector, particularly in
Bali and Yogyakarta.

The new visa structure would have never produced a positive
outcome for Indonesia. It would not have attracted working people
with families. It would not have impressed the baby boomers. In
fact retired Australians are already choosing other destinations
such as Fiji, Vanuatu, and even war-ravaged East Timor, as
preferable to Indonesia. There is no time to waste in taking
advantage of this massive potential tourism market.

During my PhD research field work in Yogyakarta I was
fortunate to have had the support of very powerful and
influential people who ensured that my visa extensions were
conducted without complication.

However many of my colleagues were not so lucky and were
forced to pay bribes to officials. Apart from the grasping mean-
spirited and unfounded anti-foreign message the new visa
regulation conveys, the practicalities of enforcing the new visa
structure actually open up another opportunity for "special
administrative fees" within the corruption-riddled immigration
service.

Now that the authorities have decided not to punish those
hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors who have fallen in love
with Indonesia, the Immigration Department would be better served
to eliminate institutionalized corruption from within their
ranks, remove all impediments to long stay visitors, and relax
controls of foreigners working in Indonesia.

The benefits would be immediate, both in terms of increased
capital inflows and the exchange of ideas and networks. Indonesia
needs friends. Indonesia has friends. It is simply a case of
making it easier, not harder, to enrich Indonesia -- both
financially and socially.