Heading Out

Traveling used to be something that was done as a means to an end, for study or business, but rarely for pleasure among Indonesians. Today, more Indonesians with disposable income and a wish to see the world are setting out for places near and far, and there is even greater potential for growth. M. Taufiqurrahman reports.  
Indonesian backpacker Rio Indrawan, now based in Singapore, experienced his “a-ha” travel moment in Southeast Asia and beyond this year.

“My traveling around the region and to India has changed my life and my dreams. It shattered my preconceptions about the region and its people,” says the student at the National University of Singapore.

He firmly believes that traveling is much more than just marveling at the ruins of a long-lost civilization or natural wonders.

“It’s about the uneasy feeling that you get from looking at those leper beggars on the steps of the Taj Mahal,” Rio says.

Traveling as backpacker has also changed his perspective on what it means to be a tourist. “I used to think that tourists should only come to convenient and accessible places. Now it is difficult-to-reach places that give me thrills and challenges,” he says.

Rio’s experience with traveling confirms some experts’ assertion that traveling matters because of what it does to the psyche.

Traveling has a more important bearing on our lives than simply being an opportunity to see pretty panoramas, take a snapshot and head home. Sure, there are those who contend that tourism causes more harm (e.g. environmental degradation, the imposition of hedonistic lifestyles on developing societies) than good, but there is more than meets the eye.

Traveling helps shape our humanity, allowing us to evolve into more complete human beings. In the book Tourism and Modernity: A Sociological Analysis, Chinese tourism expert Ning Wang argues that tourism offers people the opportunity to question conditions they take for granted. By visiting exotic places and distancing themselves from their everyday routines, people have a chance to re-examine the meaning of their lives.

But traveling for leisure and pleasure is a truly modern phenomenon, because it is only in recent times that people have had the necessary resources to escape their everyday concerns. In traditional societies, traveling for leisure was a privilege reserved for those in the upper strata of the community.

Others deem tourism to be quintessential feature of a capitalist society. Sociologist Kevin Meethan argues in his book, Tourism in Global Society: Place, Culture and Consumption, that tourism is an activity to seek “authenticity” in the midst of the alienating conditions of capitalism, with individuals required to work for a wage that disrupts their “real life”.

Leisure time is the means by which the individual can deal with their alienation, rediscovering the genuine conditions of ordinary life. In search of the “wholeness” that is absent from everyday life, modern man explores non-modern and pre-modern societies to find “real and authentic” social relations.

In a nutshell, tourism matters precisely because of the lessons it teaches us about living everyday life with others, Wang concludes.

But Wang will have a hard time convincing many folks in this country to travel.

Rio contends that many Indonesians, even today, are inward-looking. Indonesians in general are not willing to take the road less traveled and journey off the beaten path, he says. Despite being from an archipelagic nation, they are not truly interested in knowing people of different cultures, thus it is easy to treat people from other countries in a disparaging manner, he believes.

“During my three-week trip, I met dozens of backpackers from other countries like the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, but almost none from Indonesia,” he says.

He recounts having to shell out a US$30 visa fee to enter Vietnam which, like Indonesia, is part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and has a visa-exempt policy for nationals of member countries.

“The immigration officers at the Laos-Vietnam border had never met Indonesian backpackers before and assumed that I came from some country that did not have a visa exemption treaty with Vietnam,” Rio says.

Considering the huge population of 230 million, the number of Indonesians who travel, within the Southeast Asian region and beyond, remains small. The Thailand Tourism Board last year registered only 250,000 Indonesians visiting the country. Annually, only around 200,000 people from Indonesia visit China. Indonesians who travel to Singapore average around 1.5 million people annually.  

Part of the problem is the tourism industry’s preoccupation with earning profits, further diminishing the potential of tourism to become a genuine mode of social interaction. As a multi-billion dollar industry, there’s little that most tourism activities can teach people about the lives of others. The rise of the so-called “high-yield traveler” –a pet term used by national tourism offices in Southeast Asia –  has further degraded the meaning of traveling.

Lonely Planet’s Joe Cummings wrote last year in the New Statesman that the yearning for bigger profits from higher-spending tourism resulted in travelers being locked up in air-conditioned hotels packed with imported amenities and foods, and managed by foreigners or local people trained overseas. It’s like being in a very exclusive ivory tower, with the choice of a garden or beach view.

Travel agent Sanur Khatulistiwa prepares programs for all types of tourists, extending to honeymoon packages, haj pilgrimage and special-destination tourism, but stays away from anything catering to the needs of backpackers.

“We’re in this to make a profit, and if you’re a backpacker and don’t have enough money, you’d better not contact us or try to buy our package,” says general manager Agung Suyono.

The statement disregards studies showing that the humble backpacker, because he or she usually spends more time in a country and visits different places, injects more money into communities than the cosseted luxury traveler who flies in and flies out on a brief visit.

Younger Indonesians in urban areas are traveling more today, and while they may not fit the traditional stereotype of the happy-go-lucky backpacker of the Western middle-class – the so-called Bourgeois Bohemians –  many are willing to set out to explore the world. The advent of budget airlines has helped fuel the trend, as have the TV travel shows that dominate weekend broadcast schedules.  

At the recent Garuda Travel Fair, held by the resurgent national airline, prospective travelers crowded the booths of the various travel agencies. “Sam”, in his early 40s, opted for a Rp 2.5 million package to Pattaya that includes airfare, accommodation and transportation within Thailand and also a guide.

“It’s an amazing deal,” says the hospitality industry employee, who has taken up exploring the region in recent years. “It’s cheaper than traveling within Indonesia.”  

Therein lies one of the problems in getting Indonesians to explore their own country, aside from the perennial favorites Bali and Yogyakarta, even during Visit Indonesia Year when the archipelago has become a favorite spot to discover for adventure-hungry visitors.

The tiny country of Laos has done a better job in promoting its cultural attractions. Just Google “Laos”, and you are directed to a flashy website of the Laotian National Tourism Administration announcing a weeklong religious festival held at That Luang Stupa, the national symbol of the country.

Indonesia has more sizeable Buddhist monuments, like the Borobudur temple in Magelang, Central Java, but the government has yet to establish an agency that will promote it.

While Thailand is a big promoter of high-yield tourism, attracting 12 million tourists every year, some of whom end up in expensive resorts in Phuket and Koh Samui, it also has done much to meet the demands from budget travelers.

Backpackers from around the world flock to Khao San Road, Bangkok’s haven for budget travelers. Featured prominently in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, the kilometer-long strip is packed with budget guesthouses, Internet cafes, restaurants, bars, massage parlors and bookshops. It’s also known for its attention to safety and convenience. Security is around the clock and information is never in short supply.

“In anticipation of tourists coming from Indonesia, we even provide information in Indonesian,” says Indra Nugraha from the Thailand Tourism Board in Jakarta.

Indonesian backpacker Anastasya Iis says that the cost of traveling to local destinations would be as much as the amount she would spend for backpacking to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand combined.

“Besides, I doubt my English would be enough to help me survive in Europe. The thought of traveling in Malaysia and Singapore makes me nervous already,” says Anastasya, a backpacking newbie from Kutai, East Kalimantan.

Others simply say that the usual tourist attractions favored by Indonesians no longer interest them.

Anggie Nila, an employee at a Japanese multinational, says she was over Bali and Singapore, and wants to explore some of Southeast Asia’s “virgin” territory.

“Laos fits the description of a country that has not yet been explored much. I did an Internet search and found out that some of the tourist attractions are still ‘original’ and there probably aren’t many people who know about them,” she says.

The lure of backpacking, however, is always about getting to know people of different cultures. She says by being a backpacker she has more freedom to get in touch with local people and their customs.

“Most of the time during my travel I’ve been able to find people who were willing to be my host, and they all treated me nicely. I felt safe wherever I went and I always found people who I could easily befriend,” she says.

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