Editorial: Visit Indonesia Year?

Wed, 03/12/2008 1:36 AM  |  Opinion

What an unfortunate year for Indonesia's tourism industry. Less than one month after the government declared 2008 Visit Indonesia Year, flooding crippled Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the main gateway to the country, early last month.

Last week, the second annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008, by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, downgraded Indonesia as a tourist destination to 80th among 130 countries surveyed. That was much worse than its position last year, which was 60th out of 124 countries.

The report showed that Indonesia scored very poorly in health and hygiene due to an inadequate supply of hospital beds, poor access to sanitation and drinking water and an acutely low number of qualified physicians.

The country also performed badly in that other pillar of the tourism industry -- infrastructure. In fact, Indonesian airplanes have been banned from European airspace since last year and no progress has been made on getting this blanket ban lifted.

Indonesia scored high only in terms of natural resources, with several World Heritage natural sites and the richness of it flora and fauna, and price competitiveness. But these strengths were undermined by such major weaknesses as underdeveloped infrastructure, including air and ground transportation.

There are even great concerns related to safety, particularly the prevalence of road accidents.

No wonder Indonesia, though richly endowed with a wide variety of cultures and interesting sites, has remained among the least popular tourist destinations even in the Southeast Asian region, outranked by Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Last year, Indonesia received just around 5.5 million tourists, compared to more than 9 million arrivals in Malaysia and almost 20 million in Singapore.

The survey showed the top-ranked countries in the travel and tourism industry -- Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Canada and France -- understand the importance of support businesses and regulatory frameworks, coupled with world-class transportation and tourism infrastructure and a focus on nurturing human and natural resources.

Countries have vastly different underlying operational conditions, depending on where they fall in the tourism development spectrum. All have unique tourism products to offer, but the central goal is to encourage improvement in the underlying competitive conditions and infrastructure.

This is again where Indonesia is fundamentally weak, even in nature-based tourism, where the country should have a strong comparative advantage.

This latest travel and tourism report from the World Economic Forum should serve as a strong wake-up call for us, especially the government, to reinvigorate the tourism industry, especially now in the midst of a weakening global economy and uncertainty in the international financial market.

International tourism is known as a resilient industry, never suffering a deep and lasting recession and able to recover quickly because the need to travel, whether for business or leisure, is so deeply ingrained in our societies.

As a resource-based industry, tourism is also an ideal business for Indonesia to develop because of its multiplier effect and the labor-intensive nature of its operations. It directly benefits local communities economically. Travel businesses do their best when they use the local workforce, services, products and supplies.

The tourism industry also supports the integrity of a place. Destination-savvy travelers seek out businesses that emphasize the character of a locale. Tourism revenue in turn raises the perceived value of those assets.

Travel-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, transportation, handicrafts and cultural shows are all labor intensive, the very kind of enterprises needed to absorb the huge pool of job seekers here.

But it is precisely because of its multi-sectoral activities that the promotion of the tourism industry should involve not only the tourism ministry but all other state and private organizations that provide the basic infrastructure and public services, including immigration, customs, transportation, accommodation and security.

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Very Indonesian - Indonesian (not verified) — Thu, 08/21/2008 - 8:39pm

Problems in Indonesian tourism???
Let's have a look from consumer's point of view. Let's say Indonesia is a product that we choose for several reasons. A product that we have to choose carefully because it cost our precious holiday after years of working back home. A product that will give us and family the unforgettable moment. A product that will be attached forever in mind- because it's for hunnymoon. And many other irreplaceable reasons of picking the product.

After all the reasons, we try to find out what is exactly we are looking for. If it is a taxi, will you pick the one with stinky cabin? or maybe the one that you saw in newspaper about kidnapping. If it is a notebook, will you pick the one with PentiumI(in 2008)? If it is a COUNTRY, A DESTINATION FOR YOUR PRECIOUS HOLIDAY. Will you pick the one that you just saw in the news which convince you that it's just yesterday when religion conflict happened in one of the island? Or, PLEASE TO BE HONEST, will you pick the one that might have you get killed in a suicide bombing?

As an Indonesian, I always wonder WHY??? Do they know about the Greatness of Borobudur? or about the eden-wonderful Mount Bromo?
I believe GOD loves Indonesia. We have lots of undeniable reasons for the tourist to come. But WHY??? Why don't WE TRY TO LET THEM KNOw!!!

Robby Kaware (not verified) — Mon, 07/28/2008 - 4:03pm

Everytime our plane touches down in europe, USA, or Spore, I am always excited and can not wait to enjoy excellent public service of immigration, customs, taxi cabs, bus, train, etc. They are clean, fast, comfortable and safe. To most Indonesians like me, they are simply a "country of the dreams". Everything related to public service is so perfect and very well organized.
Flying home to Jakarta, on the other hand, is always like "going back to reality of life". We must be fully alert from the moment we step out from the plane until get into taxi. I can not imagine what would happen to foreign visitors or tourists who think the culture here is like in their countries.
Where is the famous Indonesian hospitality ?
Are they just an old culture of people at the country side ?

Rifni Nurrahmi (not verified) — Thu, 07/24/2008 - 11:31am

we have to promote Indonesian heritage..as we know that Indonesia have many cultures.another country doesn't have the similar things like us. we have to proud of our nationality, that's right?
And the important things the government have to give support to promote visit Indonesia year 2008 and invite tourists come to Indonesia. In many sectoral the tourism industry should make organizations to provide infra structure and public services to make their satisfaction and safety if their come to my country.

Ketti (not verified) — Fri, 07/18/2008 - 11:29am

Should we promote "Visit Indonesia Year"? Why not? all people still have curiousity to know and understand what other people have it in their each countries. Something becomes interesting when it has something value or unique for people. This antiquity can motivated tourists to visit other countries whether poor or rich, whether the countries are secure or insecure for traveling. However, the important thing we should focus is how to improve the awareness of our Indonesian people in giving good services to all tourists, mainly foreign tourists. The present condition and situation in Indonesia, with its uniquity and diversity, are the objects that we can promote to foreign tourists. Let tourists enjoy just the way we, Indonesia, are.

Captain Hook (not verified) — Fri, 07/11/2008 - 4:52am

What is typical of the 'dangkal'(shallow) mentality is to obsess over the numbers of visitors but not to take into account whether or not any of these visitors enjoyed their stay. Indonesia's reputation cannot be improved until tourists have something great to say about their stay.

Despite its advantages, Indonesia cannot compete with other countries in Southeast Asia when it comes to convenience from improved infrastructure.

Ambo upe (not verified) — Sun, 07/06/2008 - 9:59am

We have high score in terms of natural resources, with several World Heritage natural sites and the richness of it flora and fauna, and price competitiveness.These are our strengths that should be developed seriously to cover our major weaknesses such us underdeveloped infrastructure, including air and ground transportation.

With those strengths, we have to focus on developing adventure nature based tourism and eco-tourism including community based tourism. This kind of tourism not need so much infrastructure locally but absorb many local resources particularly local human resource.We also don't need generally massive promotion strategy but the selective one where the market target should be selected.This promotion strategy good for our budge as it don't need higher budge than general massive one.

I'm sure that we only have two strategic choice: developing our strengths or ignore them.Visit Indonesia Year ignore its country strengths so that hasn't better impact on Indonesia tourism development generally.Thank's

Lampu (not verified) — Mon, 05/26/2008 - 4:03am

the government put ads within the country to attract domestic tourists as well. tourism is not about foreigners visiting our country, it is also to encourage people like you and I to check out other cultures within our country.

and second, what they do in other countries is what you havent seen. so thats why you think they havent done much. look it up.
they did a lot of things. there are exhibitions held in many countries in europe to introduce indonesia. you just dont know.
and people tend to complain when they dont know.

it is good to be somewhat skeptical. but your skepticism should encourage you to learn more instead of getting angry and making yourself look foolish.

i have been travelling and yes, i do see that the program is lacking a lot of things. it is not perfect, but the idea of doing the campaign is a good enough start, for now.

Lampu (not verified) — Mon, 05/26/2008 - 3:57am

First i would like to explain to all of you here, that what the writer is talking about and what the government is doing is the Visit Indonesia 2008, not Visit Jakarta 2008.

unfortunately, most commenters seem to have not much experience in seeing other parts of indonesia.
get out of jakarta and you will notice the difference in clean air. get out of Java and you will notice how quiet it can get in other parts of indonesia.

There ARE nice places in Indonesia. many more compare to all of the SE countries.

there are many reasons why the tourist count is low, some are mentioned on the article and often talked about, i wont dwell on that. but there are two things that i would like to point out is that our location is not strategic for traveling and the second is lack of promotion.

when people go to thailand for example, it is easy for them to travel around and visit the other countries around it. same with malaysia. they dont need to fly from one place to another. easy access is what it is.

notice that there are many people who come from the western countries and when they travel to asia, most of the times, they dont just focus on one country. after the long flight from where they are from, they want to see as much Asia all at once, or get glimpses of a few that they can get to within their limited time. sometimes they even play it by ear "maybe i will stay in thailand for another 2 3 days and will go to burma tomorrow or work my way down to malaysia..."

but when people want to catch a glimpse of indonesia as part of their hop around asia tour, they have to take a specific flight to come here. they cant just take a ferry or catch a few hour bus ride. and thats why usually they dont end up far enough down here.

many tourists who visit indonesia actually specifically plan on visiting indonesia, instead of just stopping by to catch a glimpse of what indonesia is like.

in travellers point of view, especially for backpackers, indonesia is like its own continent. we are almost like not a part of asia.

many people who end up coming here to check it out for a few days as part of their hop around asia tour tend to say "man there is so much here, i will have to come again and stay longer if i want to see it.", some say "i wish i knew" or "i wish i have more time.."

Many people dont know what indonesia is all about. When they dont know, they feel too foreign to visit. it is much easier to visit thailnd, for example. their tourism is known throughout the world. they heard poeple coming and going and they already know what it has to offer. the industry is set up already. Thai tourism is promoted much much more compare to indonesian tourism. just google thailand and you will see gazillion sites for tourists.

thats what Visit Indonesia 2008 is all about. it is to introduce us so they know what we are and they will choose to come straight here and travel around the country.
you can do singapore in one day. you can do malaysia in a week but, you can do thailand in 2 weeks, but you cant do indonesia in even a month.

I support the campaign. really hope that the campaign fund is used towards what it needs.

and as indonesians, we can help promoting our tourism if we ourself try to learn more about our country, check out the natural beauty around us, accept the diversity and embrace it and send a positive message about us. be proud!

The Reader (not verified) — Mon, 05/19/2008 - 9:12pm

It is exactly the kind of defensive comment like the one posted by Judhi Hariwibowo that gets Indonesia into trouble. Didn't the person say already that he'd leave if he had a choice? Why should we be defensive everytime someone criticizes Indonesia?

We don't improve. Instead, we bury our heads in the sand, asking everyone to treat us with respect without providing anything in return. That tactic is working, by the way, as shown by our dismal tourism figure. Great work!

Mass comm student (not verified) — Sat, 05/17/2008 - 7:11pm

Visit Indonesia Year is POORLY ORGANIZED!! it is fruitless spend millions of money for advertising the program locally.,,,currently i am studying in malaysia,, and i have never seen the advertisement broadcasted on tv, radio, and i could hardly see any banner state "VISIT INDONESIA''...

and i start questioning my self "WHAT IS THE PROGRAM ACTUALLY?"
no unique selling point
no preparation >> poor infrastructure, promotion, planning
etcetera...

is the government launch teh program FOR THE SAKE OF LAUNCHING,, BETTER THAN NO PROGRAM TO LAUCNH?????????????

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