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