Tourism hit by U.S. attacks

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia may not be able to meet the 2001 foreign tourist arrival target of 5.4 million following this week's devastating terrorist attacks on the U.S., according to experts.

Senior adviser of the state minister of culture and tourism Uddin Saifuddin announced on Friday that the terror would create the jitters among Americans.

"Many Americans are now psychologically afraid of flying. After what happened there, I think that's understandable," Uddin said.

Meity Robot, Director of the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel agencies, agreed.

"The fear of flying syndrome is now spreading across America. Of course the incident will hurt our tourism sector," she said, without elaborating.

Last year, more than 200,000 American tourists visited Indonesia out of a total of 5.1 million foreign visitors.

Even before the terrorist attacks took place, some analysts had previously said that the 2001 foreign tourist arrival target would be rather difficult to meet amid an expected economic slowdown in developed nations.

Elsewhere, Uddin said that the impact of terrorist attacks on the Indonesian tourism sector would also depend on how the U.S. would retaliate against the perpetrators.

He feared that the retaliatory measures could trigger a chain of reaction that would only discourage more people from traveling.

"If the U.S decides to chase all Islamic-related groups or countries without conducting thorough investigations first, we may be heading for global chaos," Uddin said.

"That would hurt our tourist industry even more," he said.

Reports have said that the U.S. government is preparing to attack Afghanistan, which is believed to be the sanctuary of Arab millionaire Osama bin Laden who had been accused of being responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington.

"If in a month, this problem has not been overcome. I'm afraid the target of 5.4 million foreign visitors will not be reached," Uddin said.

"Hopefully things will cool down soon to the benefit of our country."

Tourism had been a major contributor to the country's economic growth in the past.(10)