Tourism industry may suffer another setback

Tourism industry may suffer another setback

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar

The country's tourism industry may suffer another serious setback
after the bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel, unless the government
takes immediate measures to tighten security.

"I have received reports from my members (tour and travel
operators), that some Japanese tourists have canceled their trips
to Indonesia. But I am not aware of the numbers yet," the
chairwoman of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel
Agencies, Meity Robot, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. "We
have just gained foreign confidence, but the bombing has taken it
from us again."

"We can regain this confidence faster if the government and
the police respond quickly," she added, pointing out that the
quick response of authorities following last year's Bali bombing
attacks had been helpful to the tourism sector.

Indeed, recent statistics indicated that the tourism sector
had started to recover from the impact of the Bali terror attack
and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic. The Central
Statistics Agency (BPS) reported last week that the number of
foreign tourist arrivals had surged by 34.78 percent to 299,856
in June, from 222,500 in the previous month. Moreover, Ngurah
Rai Airport in Bali, the country's most popular tourist
destination, recorded a 65.75 percent jump in tourist arrivals
during the month.

Tourism is one of the country's major foreign exchange earners
and provides a huge number of jobs.

So far, however, there has been no reaction of panic from
foreign visitors to the country.

"I haven't seen Jakarta hotels experiencing a deep plunge in
their occupancy rates, so far," Ade Suryanto, vice chairman of
hotel association, the Hotel Specialists, said.

He added that Jakarta hotels witnessed the panic of tourists
in 1998 when devastating riots took place in the city.

"At that time, many hotel guests hastily packed their bags and
fled," he said. "But this time, I haven't seen that happen. In
fact, tourists are arriving at hotels.."

The chief of Bali Tourism Authority, I Gde Pitana, said that
Bali was experiencing a similar reaction. "So far the (Marriott)
explosion has not caused any negative developments on the number
of both arriving and departing tourists."

Pitana dismissed rumors -- that thousands of foreign tourists
had fled Bali because of the bombing -- as incorrect and
baseless.

The chief of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, I Gusti
Made Dhordy, substantiated Pitana's statement, claiming that
everything was perfectly normal at the airport.

"I have already checked this with the airlines and the ground-
staff. There have been no unusual increases in tickets booked for
outbound flights or the numbers of departing passengers," Dhordy
said.

Separately, State Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gde Ardika
said on Wednesday, that the international community had not yet
issued any travel warnings to Indonesia.

He said that a month ago, tourism ministers from Asian and
Pacific countries had agreed not to issue travel warnings against
each other's countries, in a bid to strengthen their cooperation
in combating terrorism.