Trouble-free campaign to help tourist sector

JAKARTA (JP): The smooth process of the 16-day election campaign is expected to help ease foreign visitors' concerns over Indonesia's political and security situation, a senior tourism official said here on Thursday.

Director General of Tourism I Gede Ardika said he hoped the improved situation would prop up the country's ailing tourism.

He said the nation has successfully proven its ability to carry out the campaign activities without any major incidents and the better outlook of the country's political and security situation would be able to mend the country's international image.

"The relatively smooth election campaign, which ends today, shows that Indonesia is not something to fear and it also could serve as a turning point for the country's ailing tourism," he said.

Ardhika acknowledged that many foreigners and even local residents feared that the election campaigns would spark further unrest in the country, which have been marred with sporadic racial and religious conflicts.

As many as 48 political parties joined the nation-wide campaign prior to the June 7 general election, the fairest elections in 44 years. Previously, people were able to guess who would come out the winner.

Ardhika said the concerns over the situation in Indonesia which prompted several countries to issue travel advisories and even travel bans for their residents, had further deteriorated the country's ailing tourism sector.

"If we can maintain this relative peace and order until after the June 7 election, foreigners will regain their trust in us," he said.

He called on local tourism-related industries to take advantage of the improved situation to help speed up the recovery process of the tourism sector.

Companies would benefit from the situation by making more contact with their foreign partners and informing them of the new outlook in the country's tourism climate.

Ardhika said that the government had established bilateral cooperation in promoting tourism-related businesses with several countries such as China, Kyrghystan, Malaysia, Egypt, Singapore, Australia, Argentine, Sudan and Syria.

"But private companies acted so slow in following up the government's move and as a result, the official arrangements were often ineffective," he said.

Chairman of the Inbound Tour Operators Club, Arievaldy Kumarga, said many local companies involved in travel and tourism were not aware of the opportunities. Only a few utilized the governmental agreements and established significant cooperation with their counterparts overseas, he said.

"Many do not know that Indonesia has certain agreements with certain countries. I guess what is lacking here is channeling of information from the government to the private sector," he said. (cst)