WTO asks countries, businesses to reconsider travel warnings

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia along with the World Tourism Organization (WTO) will ask governments and business players worldwide to reconsider travel warnings issued on the country.

Secretary General to the United Nation's (UN) tourism body Francesco Frangialli said during his visit here over the weekend that some of the travel advisories for Indonesia were not based on credible reports.

"It's normal for a country to inform its travelers what the situation is in various parts of the world," he said. "We ask this to be done in a balanced, fair, transparent and accurate manner."

Frangialli said that to have a balanced travel advisory system, countries should be involved in a dialog with governments and business communities in the destination areas before issuing the warning.

Indonesia has seen a large share of negative travel advisories from several countries -- mostly from Europe, the United States and Australia -- regarding security and terrorism issues, especially after the October 2002 Bali bombings, the August 2003 Marriott blast and last year's Australian Embassy bomb in Jakarta.

Although there have been numerous successes in capturing bombing suspects and measures implemented to escalate security, the travel warnings continue.

The recent tsunami that hit Aceh and North Sumatra along with tourist destinations in Thailand, the Maldives and Srilanka, has also affected the tourism industry here, analysts say.

State Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said that 800 tourists from China canceled their trips in fear of a disease outbreak brought on by decaying corpses of tsunami victims.

"Apparently they did not realize that Aceh and Bali, or Yogyakarta, are thousands of miles away," he said.

The tourism minister also received reports that several American insurance companies had refused to cover tourists traveling to the Asia-Pacific region.

"(Because of that) people are afraid to go to the area," he said.

Frangialli said the WTO had considered drafting a code of conduct for travel advisories. "I'm going to push for that."

To discuss the effect the tsunamis had on the tourism sector, the WTO will organize a special emergency session on Tuesday in Phuket, Thailand. The organization expects to have a plan of action for the whole affected region by the end of the session.

As part of its plan of action, the WTO had already secured from the World Bank's investment firm, the International Finance Corporation, a package of US$2.5 million microcredits for the affected small and medium businesses in the sector, said Frangialli.