Tourists cancel over jihad threats

Tourists cancel over jihad threats

JAKARTA (JP): At least three groups of tourists have canceled
trips to Indonesia over the past two weeks because of reports of
a planned holy war in Maluku, a senior tourism official said on
Monday.

Deputy Minister for Tourism Product Development I Gede Ardika
said he heard of the cancellations from hotel operators who said
the tourists were put off by media photographs of sword-wielding
men training for a jihad.

Police closed down on Sunday the military-style training camp
in nearby Bogor which had been used by a Muslim organization to
train volunteers for a holy war in Maluku. The group, Laskar
Jihad (Jihad Force), has vowed to go forward with plans to send
volunteers to Maluku at the end of the month.

"I hope (the cancellations) will not lead to wider
consequences which could undermine the industry," Ardika told
journalists after opening a training program for travel agency
managers.

He said tourist arrivals in Indonesia had been affected by
unrest in Lombok in January, but arrivals had begun to pick up in
February. The total number of tourists traveling to Indonesia in
the first two months of the year was 621,358.

Ardika expects 5 percent growth in visitor arrivals this year
from the 4.8 million in 1999.

"We predict the number to reach 5.1 million visitors this
year," he said. "If conditions remain stable, we are positive we
can meet the target."

Some 30 managers from travel agencies across Indonesia are
taking part in a four-day training program operated by Singapore
Airlines (SIA) as part of its agreement with the Association of
Indonesian Travel Agencies (Asita).

"Our challenge lies in competing for the tourist market in the
ASEAN region five to 10 years from now," Ardika said. "To be able
to compete, we have to train people at all levels to have
internationally recognized competency."

The training program, conducted by SIA's Commercial Training
Center (CTC), is one of 15 scheduled for the year and will focus
on sales and marketing fundamentals.

"The training is aimed at equipping staff with the highest
degree of service orientation, product knowledge, operational
skills and selling effectiveness," CTC-SIA facilitator Matthew
Ong said.

Other courses will be run by the Center for Travel Related
Studies Singapore and the Service Quality Center Indonesia.

The program is part of an agreement reached by SIA and Asita
last month to run a three-year training program for middle and
junior-level managers of small and medium-size travel
enterprises. SIA contributed Rp 3 billion as part of the
agreement. (10)