Turbulent times in tourism

International tourism is known to be quite a resilient industry, never suffering a deep and lasting recession and always able to recover quickly because the need to travel, whether for business or pleasure, is too deeply ingrained in our societies to be easily effaced.

Tourist destinations in Asia and the Pacific emerged from the recession not long after the economic and financial crises struck the region in late 1997. Likewise, foreign tourists returned only a few weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001, and in Bali last October. International tourist arrivals, according to the World Tourism Organization, fell by only 0.5 percent in 2001, but recovered with 3 percent growth to 715 million in 2002.

However, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is convening its 52nd conference in Bali during a truly difficult period. The war in Iraq has discouraged international travel since last month, causing canceled business meetings and business plans.

Even though tourism in Asia was initially spared the direct impact of the war, it is now facing a much graver threat -- the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the region, notably in China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The war and SARS have hit the fundamentals of the travel industry -- safety, security and health.

However, it is encouraging that attendance at the current PATA meeting in Bali is almost three times as high as expected by the host. This is further evidence that most governments and businesses have had their eyes opened about the economic importance of tourism, helping the industry to gain worldwide recognition.

According to the World Trade Organization, international tourism is one of the world's top export categories with receipts exceeding US$465 billion in 2001.

Unfortunately, however, despite increasing awareness of the importance of facilitating international travel, the Indonesian government has erected a new barrier to foreign tourists only two weeks before the PATA conference convened in Bali to discuss ways to emerge from the current crisis.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, at the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, decided late last month to abolish the visa-free facility for short-term visitors from 37 countries. Strangely, the government said the decision was made with national interests and national pride in mind.

National pride, though misguided, does indeed seem to be one of the main reasons behind the policy, evidenced by the fact that the visa-free facility is now only granted to citizens of 11 countries on a reciprocal basis.

In view of the role of foreign tourism as the second largest foreign exchange earner in Indonesia, we do not see how this policy will serve our national interests or our national pride.

This decision will severely hinder inbound tourist flows, particularly in view of the fact that eight of the 10 countries that account for the largest number of tourists to Indonesia -- Japan, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain -- were excluded from the visa-free facility. According to the Office of the State Minister for Tourism and Culture, these eight countries accounted for more than three million of the about five million foreign tourist arrivals annually.

How will the government attain its target of a 5 percent to 7 percent annual increase in tourist arrivals, which is meant to help it earn $4.5 billion in hard currency, by erecting new bureaucratic barriers at a time when international tourism is already weathering a severe crisis?

Marketing Indonesia as a viable tourist destination is already an uphill task with the country still reeling from the excesses of its transition from authoritarian rule to democracy, and from a centralized government to regional autonomy.

Adding insult to injury, the steady stream of bad news in the domestic and international media about security problems in Aceh and Papua, and international allegations that the country is home to terrorists have worked to convince many potential tourists that Indonesia is an unsafe destination.

It is true, as the government has said, that a number of visitors, including drug traffickers, have abused the visa-free facility to do business or work illegally in Indonesia. The question is whether this risk is so big and unmanageable that it requires such a drastic, sweeping measure.

As a resource-based industry, tourism is one of the industries Indonesia should be focusing on developing because of its multiplier effect and the labor-intensive nature of its operations. Travel-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, transportation, handicrafts and cultural shows are all labor intensive, the very kind of enterprises needed to absorb a huge pool of job seekers.

The biggest problem with this new visa policy is not how much the visa will cost, which has not yet been decided, but the system of collection and the institutional capacity of our immigration service, which, we must acknowledge, is not among the most efficient in the world.