Tourism associations on alert over new tourism bill
Tourism associations on alert over new tourism bill
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Tourism associations are concerned with the newly proposed law
on tourism and have commented that certain articles would be
detrimental to the development of the already ailing tourism
industry.
The Indonesian Tourism Society (MPI) and the Association of
Indonesian Tours and Travel (ASITA) urged the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism to consider input from the industry before submitting
the bill to the House of Representatives for deliberation.
"We are still studying the draft at present, but we think that
several articles will become controversial," said MPI secretary
general A. Zacky Siradj last week.
As an example, he pointed out Article No. 80, which empowers
the provincial administration (aside from the police and the
District Attorney) with the authority to investigate and to
arrest businessmen who have violated industry laws and
regulations.
According to the article, he said, provincial civil servants
would be able to raid any tourism spots.
"The article only makes us nervous. How will the guests feel
if the hotel in which they are staying is being raided all the
time?" said Zacky.
He also feared that corrupt civil servants would misuse their
new authority to profit personally from the tourism industry.
Meity Robot, chairwoman of ASITA, concurred.
"Basically, we agree with the government's move to revise the
existing tourism law to cope with current conditions and to help
revive the tourism industry after the Bali bombings. However, we
hope that the new law will not add to our misery," said Meity.
The new draft law will replace the existing Tourism Law No.
9/1990, which the government considers as being no longer
adequate to cope with future developments in the country's
tourism industry.
Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika said in his
year-end statement that the ministry was still finalizing the
draft and would discuss it further with industry players and
related ministries. Further, the minister explained that the
draft had been discussed with relevant parties in the major
tourist destinations of Bali, Yogyakarta, Medan and Makassar.
The draft is expected to be submitted to the House at the end
of this month for deliberation.
Indonesia is currently suffering a setback following the Oct.
12 terrorist attack in Bali, the heart of the country's tourism
industry.
The government has estimated that, due to the tragedy, foreign
tourist arrivals in 2002 would drop by 16.5 percent to 4.3
million, compared to 5.15 million in 2001.
The estimate is the lowest number of foreign arrivals in the
past six years.
Tourism Law No. 9/1990 vs. the newly proposed law:
Tourism Law No. 9/1990
- Three articles on tourism resorts and attractions
- Four sub-chapters consisting of 23 articles on business
classifications, services, resorts and attractions,
development and infrastructure of the tourism industry
- One article on public participation
- Three articles on the development of tourism businesses
- Two articles on the transfer of authority concerning tourism
from the central government to provincial
administrations
- Five articles on sanctions
Proposed law
- Three articles on tourism resources
- Six sub-chapters consisting of 10 articles on the rights and
obligations of tourists, tourism businessmen, tourism workers,
tourism associations, the public and the press
- Two sub-chapters consisting of two articles on the rights and
obligations of the central government and provincial
administrations
- Four articles on the planning and development of the tourism
industry
- Two articles on tourism products
- Five sub-chapters consisting of 50 articles on business
classifications, service, resorts and attractions,
infrastructure and business licenses of the tourism industry
- Two articles on tourism marketing
- Two articles on the development of human resources for tourism
- One article on investigating legal violations of the tourism
industry
- Seven articles on sanctions