TOURISM SECTOR NEEDS CONSISTENT POLICIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Nov 9 (ANTARA) - The tourism industry in Indonesia has yet to develop maximally. Though the country is rich in tourism potentials, this sector could not yet be fully tapped to give benefit to the nation.

        Apart from terrorist and natural disaster disturbances in recent years, the government's inconsistent polices can also be a factor that hampers the country's tourism development.

        "There are many inconsistent polices in the tourism sector which often overlap each other, particularly those issued between the central government and the regional administrations," Jongki Adiyasa, vice chairman of The Association of the Indonesian Tour & Travel Agencies (Asita) for Jakarta, said.

        In Asita's view, the recent national summit could virtually create a good investment climate for the tourism sector. Unfortunately, the good investment climate is unlikely to be created for the whole sectors in the tourism business.

        "Among the causes of this condition included the fact that there are many inconsistent polices which often overlap each other, particularly those made between the central and regional governments," the Asita vice chairman said.

        He cited as an example the police numbers of vehicles for a tourism fleet in Bali and Jakarta. "In Bali they are required to use private plate numbers while in Jakarta they have to use service ones. Thus, in Bali, a fleet has to pay tax higher than one that has to be paid in Jakarta," he said.

        Jongki said that many investors were actually waiting for the government's consistent policies before they could go ahead with making a serious investment in Indonesia.

        He considered that consistency was important because the tourism business was sensitive to policy changes. The more frequent change in the policy the bigger the loss a tourism business would likely to suffer.

        Therefore, Asita was calling on policy makers to be consistent in drawing up their polices which had to be synchronized with those produced in the regions.

        However, there are still certain sectors in the tourism business which are still promising, especially after the holding of the recent national summit.

        It seems that after the summit which was held last month, tourism investment in Indonesia would grow positively. "The investment in the tourism sector will grow positively, though it would not be as rapid as our expectation," Jongki Adiyasa said.

        He said that significant growth could be expected from certain tourism sectors such as hotels and MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) programs.

        The Asita chairman said he was convinced that the investment in the hotel and MICE sectors would grow significantly in line with the improvement of the country's economic business climate.

        After all, the slight increase of foreign tourist arrivals in the first nine months of this year can serve as an indication of improving tourism business in the country, albeit in the last two months there is downward trend due to terror attacks on two international hotels in Jakarta.

        In the first nine months of this year, more than 4.61 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia up 1.07 percent from the same period last year.

        With the remaining three months, Indonesia still has to work hard to achieve its target set at 6.5 million. The figure is projected to increase to 7 million next year.

        According to Central Board of Statistics (BPS)'s Head Rusman Heriawan, albeit small, the increase showed signs of improving tourism industry in the country amid the global economic meltdown.

        The same optimism was also expressed by an official of the Tourism and Culture Ministry.

        "In September 2009 alone, the number of tourist arrivals was 493,799," head of the Tourism and Culture Ministry's data processing and network system center Wibowo said.

        Compared to the same period last year, however, the number of tourist arrivals in September 2009 slightly fell 1.44 percent, he said.

        "The number of foreign tourists to Indonesia in the January-September 2009 period increased by an average of more than two digits," he said.

        Based on the BPS data, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in the first eight months of 2009 rose 1.38 percent to 4.13 million from the same period last year. More than 4.06 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the January-August 2008 period.

        The Indonesian tourist resort island of Bali took the lead with 1.53 million tourist arrivals, a 13.38 percent increase compared to the same period last year when the figure was 1.35 million.

        However, according to Made Kawiana, a tourism observer and businessman, foreign tourist arrivals in Bali in the January-August period in 2009 numbered 1,464,738 or 12.8 percent higher than in the same period last year when the figure was 1,296,046.

        "This means foreign tourists wishing to visit Bali were not affected by the terrorism issue in Indonesia," Made Kawiana.

        The bombings that happened in Jakarta in mid-July 2009 did not discourage foreign tourists from spending their holidays in Bali as proven by the fact that they continued to flock to Bali after the twin luxury hotel bombings in central Jakarta.***2*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/20:31/H-YH) (T.A014/A/A014/A/H-YH) 09-11-2009 21:40:27