T

aking notice of an opinion by Anak Agung Gde Agung entitled: Indonesia’s tourism — a national tragedy, published in Jan. 21, 2010, we would like to clarify some points.

First, we would like to provide a summary of key statistics on total tourist arrivals in Indonesia. It was shown that between 1995 and 2007 tourist arrivals in Indonesia fluctuated from between 4.4 to 5.3 million. The figure was seriously impacted by a series of tragedies, such as terrorism, earthquakes, tsunamis and epidemic diseases.

In 1997 we recorded the arrival of 5.18 million tourists. A year later, the economic crisis that was followed by a multidimensional crisis that contributed to the decline of visitor arrivals to 4.6 million.

The figure, however, gradually increased in the next three years, booking significant growth in 1999 (4.72 million), in 2000 (5.06 million) and in 2001 (5.15 million).

However, the number of foreign tourists decreased after the World Trade Center attacks in September 2001, which recorded a significant decline in visitor arrivals in Indonesia as well as in other countries. In 2002, 5.03 million tourists visited the country.

In the years following, the tourism industry in Indonesia has faced several major threats. Since 2002, travel warnings have been issued by a number of countries over terrorist threats and incidents in some areas in Indonesia that significantly reduced the number of foreign visitors. The bombing in Bali in 2002 was a major blow to the tourism sector, reducing visitor arrivals to 4.46 million in 2003.

Government and stakeholders have since then worked hand in hand, along with the support of other countries and NGOs to recover Indonesia’s tourism sector. A year later, in 2004, tourist arrivals increased to 5.32 million, marking the highest number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia.

But bombing incidents have occurred almost every year since then, again worsening the Indonesian tourism sector. The 2004 Australian Embassy bombing and the second Bali bombing in October 2005,
along with the December 2004 tsunami the Yogyakarta earthquake and the bird flu outbreak in 2005, caused tourist arrivals to decrease to 5.02 million in 2005 and 4.87 million in 2006.

Through various campaigns, the number of foreign tourist arrivals bounced back in 2007, booking an influx of 5.5 million tourists. The Visit Indonesian Year (VIY) 2008 campaign contributed to the increase of tourist arrivals to 6.42 million in 2008 — the highest ever in the country — contributing US$7.3 billion in tourism revenue. The VIY campaign also stimulated the growth of domestic tourists, at 225 million, who spent around Rp 123.17 trillion. The 2008 performance shows the significant growth of 16.4 percent from the previous year, the best result within ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific, which recorded growth of 10.26 percent and 3.48 percent, respectively.  

In 2009, despite the global economic crisis, with the general elections at home and the July 2009 JW Marriott-Ritz Carlton bombing, Indonesia’s tourism managed to show resistance, recording 6.4 million tourist arrivals.

Second, there was the government’s policy to develop Bali as a tourism icon. The government issued in 1972 a master plan for the Development of Tourism in Bali, making Bali the model for future tourism development for the rest of the country. This policy was also meant to attract international visitors to other destinations in regions from Sabang to Merauke. Programs, such as “Bali and Beyond” in 1990 and “Bali + 10”, were drawn up to support the development of other tourist destinations.

The government issued a ministerial regulation in 2007, determining 10 leading destinations, namely North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, West Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Riau Islands, East Kalimantan and West Papua. The 10 destinations, with diverse characteristics and resources, were stimulated to develop their tourism potential.

Third, in the development of destinations outside Bali and Java, there are important matters to be considered: infrastructure, budget limitations and human resources.

Indonesia with a vast region and diverse ethnic group and culture — in other words, with the abundance of tourism potential — needs more effort and budget to promote and manage its tourism potential.

Fourth, it needs a brand image. We have to admit that neighboring Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore have succeeded in promoting their tourism by means of their international brandings, with the support of an adequate budget.

We have the “Indonesia Ultimate in Diversity”, and the strategy to promote our potential, but our promotional budget has been limited. In 2007 for example, Malaysia’s tourism promotional budget was $100 million, Singapore allocated $90 million, while we only had $15 million.

The government has introduced the 2010–2014 Tourism Development Plan, which no longer focuses on the number of foreign tourist arrivals, but more on the priorities below:

The development of tourism-human resources, quantitatively and qualitatively.

Tourism contribution on national revenue.

New investment quantities in the tourism industry.

Domestic tourism expenditure.

Revenue/foreign exchange earnings.

Based on the above facts and figures, we would like to inform that Indonesia’s tourism should not be compared with other countries for we face different situations that need special responses, policies and strategies.


The writer is a chief spokesman at the Culture and Tourism Ministry.