Indonesia out to heal hurt image

The Indonesian government last week launched an international campaign aimed at rehabilitating the shattered image of the country after the October 12 terrorist attack on Bali, the worst in the history of its tourism industry.

Addressing a gathering of 200 tour operators and tourism officials in the UAE, Thamrin B. Bachri, deputy director of marketing and international relations for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said the people of Indonesia are grieving over the tragedy in Bali.

"We are saddened by this incident. Hundreds of people were killed and injured due to this barbaric act. At the same time, we are also worried about the lives of millions of people all over the country who are working in the tourism industry.

"While the incident happened in Bali, it has had an impact all over Asean and other regions," Bachri noted.

He said the occurrence had badly impacted the tourism industry and the occupancy rate was falling to a level never seen before.

"Cancellations are being made by potential tourists who had booked to Indonesia and even to Southeast Asia. As I mentioned before, millions of jobs in the tourism field are at stake," he explained.

He pointed out that there were more than 5.1 million international tourists and over 110 million domestic tourists in 2001.

"The activity resulted in a business flow of $5.1 billion from international tourists and more than $8 billion overall. A survey in 2000 told us that more than 7.7 million people work directly in the tourism industry."

However, Bachri said the people and the Government of Indonesia have been taking steps to recover from the impact.

"One week after the incident happened, all parties involved in Indonesian tourism gathered in Bali to set up a recovery action plan to bring back tourism activity to Indonesia, especially to Bali.

"Indonesians are working very hard these days to restore the security and safety of the country".

He said in the aftermath of the Bali tragedy, the Indonesian Government set up a recovery action plan based on four stages - rescue, rehabilitation, normalisation and expansion. The aim is to restore confidence in international and domestic markets.

"Activities that are being undertaken at this stage are humanitarian actions based on well prepared public relations activities, such as setting up media centres, conducting image recovery programmes, international cooperation, roadshows, active participation in travel marts, and inviting international journalists and travel writers on familiarisation trips."

Promotion of domestic tourism is also one important activity that is being undertaken during this stage. The rescue programmes will last until the end of this year and that is when the second stage, the rehabilitation, starts.

He noted that more marketing activities will be introduced during this period such as participating in events and trade shows. "Other important activities that will be the highlight of this stage are product and service quality improvement and developing incentive schemes on fiscal and non-fiscal policies. The rehabilitation will last for six months up to mid-2003."

He said tourism in Indonesia is based on the wonderful colourful and multi-ethnic cultures. "Most of them still live in harmony in many places in Indonesia. That is why we consider tourism a peaceful solution to our progress, and we are against the act of terrorism in any corner of the world."

He said the Gulf region is an important tourist market for Indonesia. The potential of the Middle East market can be seen from the growth rate of Middle East tourists to Indonesia in the past few years.

Although the market share to the total number of visitor arrivals to Indonesia is less than one per cent, the growth rate of the Middle East tourist is increasing at a steady pace and higher than the average growth rate of visitor arrivals to Indonesia.

The UAE, as one of the prominent countries in the Middle East region, plays an important role in generating a tourist market to Indonesia. Its strategic position, as a hub of international links, becomes an integral part in considering the country a major distributor of tourist flows to Indonesia, he noted.