War, pneumonia scare a double blow to tourism
War, pneumonia scare a double blow to tourism
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A new pneumonia scare affecting the region and a war in Iraq will
deal a severe blow to the country's already fragile tourism
sector, which has just started to recover from the impact of last
year's Bali bombings, a senior government official said.
"The impact of the mystery illness will actually be much
greater than the Iraq war," Indonesian Culture and Tourism Board
(ICTB) chairman Setyanto P. Santosa said late on Tuesday.
"But it's too early to estimate the potential losses to the
tourism industry," he added.
The ICTB is a unit of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture
whose main job is to promote the country's tourism sector.
Tourism experts worldwide have warned that the mystery
respiratory disease -- called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- which has
caused at least nine deaths, would become a new threat to the
region's tourism sector.
"This is a new challenge for us just as we're starting to
attract more tourists," Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede
Ardike said.
Indonesia's tourist industry, which is the country's second
largest non-oil and gas foreign exchange earner, was badly hit by
deadly bomb blasts on the popular resort island of Bali on Oct.
12, which killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Last year, the number of foreign tourists fell to around 4
million from 5.15 million in 2001.
Since the Bali bombings, the government has taken a number of
measures to revive the tourist industry.
The ICTB, for instance, has allocated some US$15 million to
finance promotional programs this year to lure more tourists to
Indonesia.
The imminent war in Iraq (some predict that the U.S. and its
allies will attack Iraq later this week) is another serious
threat to the tourist industry as it could potentially create
anti-Western sentiment here.
Citizens from countries whose governments support the U.S.
over Iraq, such as Australia, Britain, Japan and Spain, would
avoid coming to Indonesia due to security fears. Australia and
Japan are the main source of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia.
Ardike said that so as to anticipate the war, the government
had launched promotions to attract more tourists from the Asian
region.
Setyanto said that even if the war was over quickly, the
pneumonia scare would still haunt the industry particularly if
progress in seeking a cure for the disease was not rapid.
The disease's symptoms include coughing, a high fever and
shortness of breath.