Tourism hit by U.S. attacks

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)