Tourism feels the heat of volcanic scare
The Jakarta Post, Tanjung Lesung, Anyer
As Mount Anak Krakatau comes to live again and mild tremors rattle the crater, tourist attractions along Banten's coastline are deserted, as visitors, mostly from Jakarta, choose to stay away.
Few people were spotted at Tanjung Lesung Bay and Anyer Beach over the weekend -- both popular tourist resorts frequented by Jakarta residents at weekends.
A staff member at the four-star Tanjung Lesung Resort Hotel, A Mong, said that the resort's occupancy rate had decreased from an average of 80 percent to almost nothing, with only one family staying in one of its 20 cottages.
"This is bad news for us. The business was just beginning to slightly improve in March after the tsunami issue, which scared people from going anywhere near the sea. But before it had returned to normal, the news about Anak Krakatau hit us," A Mong told The Jakarta Post.
Security personnel at the main entrance to the Tanjung Lesung Estate, where the resort, along with villas, a sailing club and beach club are located, said that only between three and five cars had entered the estate last weekend, which was very different from previous weekends.
The sailing club at Tanjung Lesung, owned by a British man, David Baylis, only hosted four guests after many domestic and foreign tourists canceled their bookings.
The situation forced him to cancel a boat race because many of his guests, who had already booked cottage the previous week, were too frightened to come, even though he had explained that earthquakes were considered normal as Tanjung Lesung was the nearest bay to Krakatau.
"I wouldn't buy thousands of square meters of land here if I new everything was going to be demolished by an eruption. Yes, Krakatau may erupt again sometime in the future, but it won't happen in the near future. I told them (his customers) about this, but they don't believe me," he said.
Anyer beach, which is usually visited by tens of thousands of people at weekends, was quiet on Sunday morning.
One five-star resort hotel, the Sol Elite Marbella, a 300-room hotel that normally is 80 percent full on weekends, had only let 33 rooms on Friday and 41 rooms on Saturday.
Sol Elite Marbella General Manager Bernhard Kammerlohr said that even though he had been told by volcanology experts that the mountain's activity would not endanger Anyer beach, his customer's perceptions were hard to change.
He was afraid that if business remained bad over the long term, it could have a grave on the community at large as the hotel was the biggest taxpayer in the province.
"The central government and provincial administration, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency along, with the volcanology institute, should declare that Banten is safe for tourism. Once that happens, the tourism situation should return to normal," he said.
Kammerlohr's optimism was supported by a report issued by the Anak Krakatau volcano monitoring station located in Pasauran, about 20 kilometers from Marbella, that only 10 mild earthquakes had been recorded on Saturday.
"There is nothing to worry about. Even if it erupts, it won't be as big as the 1883 explosion as this is a small volcano. It would hardly affect Anyer and other coastal areas in the province. There's no reason why people should not enjoy a vacation here," said Sikin, a volcano observer on duty at the station. (006)