JAKARTA, 20 September 2003 — In a renewed effort to promote tourism following recent terror attacks, first on the resort island of Bali and later at a major hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia is looking to Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states.
The move is part of an effort to revive the tourism industry in Indonesia, previously a favorite destination with international tourists despite the country’s troubled history.
At tourist resorts from Bali to Yogyakarta, the numbers of foreign visitors are substantially down.
The Indonesian government has now come up with a new campaign to promote tourism, especially in Middle Eastern countries, a move supported by Garuda Indonesia, the national carrier, which currently operates eight flights a week from the Kingdom.
Bachrul Hakim, Garuda’s executive vice president (commercial), told Arab News that the airline, with a fleet of 54 aircraft, had been operating flights to 22 international destinations, including three in Saudi Arabia. “Plans are also underway to replace some aging Garuda planes with new ones,” Hakim said.
Garuda has also entered into a code-sharing agreement with Malaysia Airlines. This agreement, he said, was aimed at maintaining and strengthening both airlines’ positions in the European region, particularly in the aftermath of the Bali tragedy, the Iraq attack and the SARS outbreak, all of which have hit the travel industry hard.
Hakim said Garuda resumed normal services on all routes after having either suspended operations or reduced flight frequency over SARS. He added that the flight frequency on the Jakarta-Singapore route had been increased to five times a day recently from three. There are still plans to increase the number of flights to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and a host of other destinations in different continents.
Indonesian Minister of Tourism I. Gede Ardika told a press conference in Jakarta early this month that Asia-Pacific movements ranked second only to Europe but there was still enormous potential for growth. The minister expressed the hope that Indonesia will draw increasing numbers of tourists.
“This is the time to stand united against terrorism, which has done so much damage to the travel industry,” the minister said. After falling victim to several disastrous events — from the bombing in Bali and the outbreak of SARS to the bombing at the J.W. Marriot Hotel in downtown Jakarta — Indonesia has been struggling to recover. The Ministry of Tourism has set both short-term and long-term goals for a recovery. In its heyday in 2000, the island state received some 5.6 million visitors and generated a revenue of $5.7 billion.
New infrastructure projects are well under way. Officials here said that the new Trans-Jakarta Ferry Service operated by Jakarta Communication Service will connect Jakarta and the islands in Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) north of Jakarta by October. To make it more affordable to day trippers, the regional government has submitted a budget proposal of 2.4 billion Indonesian rupiah to subsidize the operation for the initial year. There will be two air-conditioned vessels, each with a capacity for 50 passengers and business class cabins, to make the daily round-trip.
The ferry service is to stop at some 18 islands en route. Turipno said: “We have been getting feedback that accessibility is one of the major obstacles to developing Kepulauan Seribu as a tourist destination. There are some 110 islands in Kepulauan and 45 of them are tourist resorts, part of the total 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia. Trolling, diving and snorkeling are some of the attractions there.
Banjari said many places in the country would cater to the tastes, traditions and needs of Saudi tourists. Besides Jakarta, the country’s second city, Surabaya, proves to be a serious contender as a major tourist destination. Five-star hotels, shopping centers, convention centers, Asian and Western restaurants, pubs and discos, vie for attention with the evidence of rich East Javanese culture in the two cities.
Also blending in are the influences from Arabs, Chinese and Indians who previously embarked in the unique port city of Surabaya. Dotted in and around Indonesia’s capital city are some of Asia’s finest golf courses. This is in addition to Komodo, another tourist attraction, offering divers a great variety of marine life. Komodo is one of the richest areas for coral biodiversity in Indonesia and has one of the richest fish faunas in the world with an estimated 1,000 species. In East Java, there is possible draw — Mt. Bromo National Park, perhaps the region’s most dramatic destination. It is an arid highland desert set in which a live volcano smolders, surrounded by sheer cliffs and startlingly empty sea of black sand.
Indonesia is confident that in the medium and long term, increasing awareness of its undeniable attractions will outweigh the impact of the recent scares and bring tourists, particularly form the Gulf, back to its shores.
