Indonesia’s tourism potential is handicapped by a serious lack of talent and imagination both at a government administration level and from within the industry, both of which, like Indonesia itself, tends to be defensive and inward-looking.
Let’s look at some examples: The death of backpacker tourism. It is hard now to comprehend, that back in the early ‘70s, Indonesia was the world’s pioneering leader in backpacker tourism.
Several of the world’s leading travel guide book series, such as Lonely Planet, Periplus editions and Apa Insight guides were founded by tourists backpacking in Indonesia. Backpacker tourism is a multi-decade long-term investment; today’s budget traveler returns in the future with entire families in tow.
But backpackers bring tourist dollars directly into the pockets of village people.
There was nobody from the village level to lobby in Jakarta on behalf of the humble backpackers’ needs, so nowadays, once-busy backpacker destinations such as Lake Toba are sad and empty ghost towns.
Two or three decades ago, Indonesia’s earlier generation of tourism leaders, saw the potential in short-haul weekend tourism from Malaysia and Singapore into Bintan and Batam. Expensive hotels and golf courses were developed. Long-term club memberships and tourist visas were made easy to arrange. Batam and Bintan enjoyed a temporary boom in golf and weekend tourism.
But, due to short-sighted government taxes and regulations, a quick weekend visit from Malaysia/Singapore to Bintan, Batam or Karimun is now no longer worth the hassle. Tourist arrivals in those places, once nearly 2 million per year, now barely achieve 1 million. Expensive resorts struggle to cover their costs. Hotels continue to close down. Our policy makers make no efforts to
improve the deteriorating regional ferry and immigration counter services.
As the world’s largest island nation, it is quite evident that Indonesia’s tourist planners have never visited Langkawi and Phuket, the Caribbean or the Greek Isles to see an enormous industry perfectly suited to Indonesia’s geography and seafaring skills.
The few intrepid pioneering operators who bring divers, surfers and nature lovers to beautiful places in Eastern Indonesia, the Natuna Sea and off the coast of Sumatra only ever deal with local officialdom in terms of paying bribes to not have their small businesses closed down; they receive zero encouragement and support for their pioneering efforts.
The foregoing examples mention three from dozens of seriously unrealized tourism sectors. So long as Indonesia’s tourism industry is managed by inward-looking, untalented hacks, inbound arrivals will remain at current stagnant levels. I suggest that the industry is in such bad shape that the government should ask Malaysia, Thailand and Australia to lend some qualified policy makers to help get Indonesia’s tourism back on it feet.
Evan Jones
Batam, Riau Islands
