From all the evidence, Indonesia’s tourism planners look down their noses at budget (backpacker) tourism. Possibly because they personally prefer luxury five-star air-conditioned resort hotels and they cannot see the attraction of simple living in a grass hut. (Maybe some of them are trying to forget memories of their own humble kampung beginnings.)
In the 60s and 70s, Indonesia pioneered simple backpacker tourism. Indeed, several of today great travel guide book publishers, such as Lonely Planet (Tony and Maureen Wheeler), Insight Guides (Hans Hoffer) and Moon Publications had their beginnings traveling budget-style around Indonesia and introduced the possibility, which opened an entire new market.
Unlike five-star hotels where local village people become laborers, room maids, dishwashers and drivers for wealthy resort owners, backpackers introduce cash, language ability, practical tourism skills (such as cooking and tour guiding) and cultural interaction directly between village people and foreign visitors.
Backpackers come with lower expectations than mainstream tourists; they are more tolerant of Indonesia’s infrastructural weaknesses. They don’t write letters to The Jakarta Post complaining that it takes an hour in traffic to get from Kuta to Ubud.
But they do spend their money, and they often return to their favorite destinations of their youth, time and again, often for decades. Until that thousand-dollars-a-month backpacker from the 80s returns today with family in tow, spending more like a thousand dollars a day.
It is ironic that a rich country like Australia saw the short- and long-term benefits of budget youth tourism that Indonesia’s tourism planners so carelessly discarded. Australia’s tourist industry leaders introduced a whole package of official pro-backpacker policies, so successful that this expensive country is now a must-see destination for young travelers from Europe.
Too many of Indonesia’s economic policies are pushed by vested business interests. In the case of budget tourism, there is no one in Jakarta to represent Lake Toba guesthouses, Bukittinggi canyon treks or Malang waterfalls. Visit these destinations today and often all you can see of a once vibrant industry are faded posters and boarded-up hotels.
Evan Jones
Batam, Riau Islands
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