Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik says Indonesia’s vast experience dealing with crises will help the country’s tourism sector recover from the impact of last Friday’s hotel bombings in Jakarta.
“Indonesia has a lot of experience dealing with crises,” he said Wednesday at a press conference in the capital.
“We’ve been hit by bombs, tsunami, bird flu and financial crises, but we’ve survived. We always survive.
“We needed just one year to recover from the second Bali bombing. I have a gut feeling this time we’ll need only six months to recover.”
Jero also said the House of Representatives had given its full support to ensuring the recovery of the tourism sector.
“I had a meeting with the House last night,” he said.
“The House approved additional funds of Rp 94 billion [US$9.3 million] to help the tourism sector recover.”
Jero added the terrorist attacks would not stop the ministry from holding events and festivals to attract more foreign tourists to the country.
“The events will go ahead as planned,” he said.
“Tomorrow, an international golf tournament will tee off outside Jakarta. We’ll also launch a special sightseeing event for the local and international media next week.
“At the end, we want to show the terrorists we’re not afraid and that business will go on as usual.”
Xu Jing, from the United Nations World Tourism Organization for Asia Pacific, said Indonesia’s resilience in the face of tragedy was a proven value based on the figures achieved in the tourism sector within the first five months of 2009.
“Tourist arrivals, especially to Bali, are on the rise,” he said.
“Bali saw a 9 percent increase in tourist arrivals. This is extremely good news, not just for Indonesia, but especially in comparison with the rest of the world.
“There is an 8 percent decrease in tourist arrivals in the rest of the world. Indonesia is probably the only exception in the midst of all these financial and economic difficulties,” he added.
However, Xu also pointed out that for the time being, the country’s image, particularly Jakarta’s, among foreign tourists had been tarnished.
“I must say for the time being, on a temporary basis, I don’t think we can avoid Jakarta being perceived negatively,” he said.
“This is understandable. But what is important that I would like to share with you is that people’s perceptions are usually short-lived.”
Xu echoed statements made Tuesday by Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) chairman M.S. Hidayat, who said occupancy rates in five-star international hotels had dropped in the last four days.
The pinch is being felt too in Bali, the heart of the nation’s tourist industry, where the American luxury liner Sun Princess cancelled its planned stop there that would have brought in 2,000 tourists.
However, tourism elsewhere in the country, such as in East Kalimantan, remains unaffected.
“Hotels in the Derawan, Maratua, Kakaban and Berau islands are fully booked until the end of August, and there have been no cancellations yet,” Joko Purwanto, head of the Association Tour and Travel Agencies’ (ASITA) East Kalimantan office, said in Balikpapan. (hdt)
Nurni Sulaiman contributed to this story from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
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