Tourists rush to Bali after tsunami
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Every cloud has a silver lining, so the saying goes, and Indonesia's tourist industry may prove to be the unintended beneficiary of the tsunamis that crushed several popular tourist destinations in Malaysia and Thailand.
State Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said in a press conference on Thursday that the country would welcome some 100,000 foreign tourists, who initially planned to go to Phuket in Thailand and Langkawi in Malaysia, in the next few weeks.
"We received requests for destination switches in the last couple of days," he told reporters.
As some tourists may come from countries which are not eligible to get a visa on arrival, the tourism office has asked the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to arrange an ad hoc visa-on-arrival policy.
The visa-on-arrival policy was introduced in February for 22 selected countries. The government waives the visa requirement for tourists from nine other countries, including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the basis of reciprocity.
Citizens of countries who are not on either list must apply for a visa at the Indonesian Embassy in their respective countries.
"It's difficult for them to change their vacation dates, so we will give them a visa on arrival in this situation," said Jero.
The Agence France-Presse reported that thousands of Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese tourists had canceled their New Year's holidays in Southeast and western Asia after tidal waves raged shores and killed more than 80,000 people last Sunday.
Paradise beaches turned into a tourist nightmare when walls of water, triggered by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale off Sumatra, pounded resorts and swept away everything in sight.
The northern resort island of Penang, where 66 bodies have been discovered so far, is the worst hit area in Malaysia. Two beaches in another well-known tourist destination, Langkawi island, were reported to be damaged by the tsunamis. The airport and resorts in other beaches, however, have been unscathed.
Thailand's resort island Phuket, which would normally be packed with tourists in the holiday season, was also badly hit. The death toll in Thailand is feared to soar from the current confirmed figure of 1,975 to nearly 7,000, as thousands of Thais and foreigners are still missing.
Although Indonesia has seen at least 52,000 people killed in the calamity, not many tourist destinations were destroyed. Activities at favorite island resorts, such as Bali and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, have been unaffected.
AFP reported that travel bureaus in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong were now offering other alternatives to travellers, but many had just given up their holiday plans.
"Most of them (tourists) preferred to ask for a refund as they are scared and are not ready to travel yet because of the disasters," Chan Mok-seng, executive director at Hong Kong's Morning Star Travel Service, was quoted as saying.
The Taipei Association of Travel Agents said that Taiwanese who were going ahead with their holidays opted for packages to Japan, South Korea, and China.
Several airlines, namely Orient Thai, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, and Taiwan's China Airlines and Uni Airways, have also temporarily suspended flights to Phuket.