War and SARS adversely affecting tourism: BPS

War and SARS adversely affecting tourism: BPS

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current war in Iraq coupled with the outbreak of a
potentially deadly pneumonia-like disease, Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), are threatening the country's
tourist industry, which is still struggling to recover from the
impact of the Oct. 12 Bali terrorist attack, the Central Bureau
of Statistics (BPS) said.

"The number of tourists visiting Bali has been on the decline
since the war broke out last month," Slamet Mukeno, the deputy
chief of BPS, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Slamet said that number of tourist arrivals at Ngurah Rai
airport in Bali, which is a barometer of the industry nationwide,
was recorded at 2,500 per day from March 1 to March 20.

But, after the war broke out on March 20, the number of
tourist arrivals at the airport dropped to 2,300 per day, he
added.

"The figure was recorded from March 21 to March 29 or after
the war, showing that the war may have contributed to the decline
of tourists in Bali," said Slamet.

Several industry leaders previously warned that foreign
tourists might cancel their plans to visit Indonesia and other
countries in the South East Asian region due to the war and the
reactions to it here.

Massive protests in Indonesia against the U.S.-led war in Iraq
have created a sense of unease among would-be foreign visitors
that they could become a target of anti-western protesters here.

Another factor is in terms of transportation. Since the war
broke out, airlines, particularly those from Europe, have had to
re-route several flights to avoid the conflict in the Middle
East, thus raising transportation costs. More Significantly,
Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, among others, have
completely canceled many routes due to SARS.

In addition to the war in Iraq, the outbreak of SARS in Asia
has apparently also put people off from traveling around the
region, especially by airlines.

A senior official at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture had
previously warned that the impact of SARS on Indonesia's tourism
industry could be more damaging than the war.

The above two factors look set to once again bring down the
country's tourism industry, which has just started to recover
from the devastating impact of the Oct. 12 attack, which had
killed more than 200 people mostly foreign tourists.

The tourism industry is seen as a crucial sector for the
Indonesian economy particularly as exports had slowed down amid
uncertainty in the global economy.

Since the terrorist attack in Bali, the government had
launched various programs to help the tourism industry recover.

Indeed, there were some positive signs. "The number of
tourists visiting Bali in February increased by 8.97 percent to
72,000 in February from the previous month's 66,000," said BPS
chief Soedarti Surbakti.

In November last year, or one month after the bomb blasts, the
number of tourists who visited Bali was recorded at 35,107.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia
increased in February by 3.73 percent to 289,800 from 279,400 in
the previous month, BPS said.