Visit Indonesia Year?

What an unfortunate year for Indonesia's tourism industry. Less than one month after the government declared 2008 Visit Indonesia Year, flooding crippled Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the main gateway to the country, early last month.
Last week, the second annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008, by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, downgraded Indonesia as a tourist destination to 80th among 130 countries surveyed. That was much worse than its position last year, which was 60th out of 124 countries.
The report showed that Indonesia scored very poorly in health and hygiene due to an inadequate supply of hospital beds, poor access to sanitation and drinking water and an acutely low number of qualified physicians.
The country also performed badly in that other pillar of the tourism industry -- infrastructure. In fact, Indonesian airplanes have been banned from European airspace since last year and no progress has been made on getting this blanket ban lifted.
Indonesia scored high only in terms of natural resources, with several World Heritage natural sites and the richness of it flora and fauna, and price competitiveness. But these strengths were undermined by such major weaknesses as underdeveloped infrastructure, including air and ground transportation.
There are even great concerns related to safety, particularly the prevalence of road accidents.
No wonder Indonesia, though richly endowed with a wide variety of cultures and interesting sites, has remained among the least popular tourist destinations even in the Southeast Asian region, outranked by Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Last year, Indonesia received just around 5.5 million tourists, compared to more than 9 million arrivals in Malaysia and almost 20 million in Singapore.
The survey showed the top-ranked countries in the travel and tourism industry -- Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Canada and France -- understand the importance of support businesses and regulatory frameworks, coupled with world-class transportation and tourism infrastructure and a focus on nurturing human and natural resources.
Countries have vastly different underlying operational conditions, depending on where they fall in the tourism development spectrum. All have unique tourism products to offer, but the central goal is to encourage improvement in the underlying competitive conditions and infrastructure.
This is again where Indonesia is fundamentally weak, even in nature-based tourism, where the country should have a strong comparative advantage.
This latest travel and tourism report from the World Economic Forum should serve as a strong wake-up call for us, especially the government, to reinvigorate the tourism industry, especially now in the midst of a weakening global economy and uncertainty in the international financial market.
International tourism is known as a resilient industry, never suffering a deep and lasting recession and able to recover quickly because the need to travel, whether for business or leisure, is so deeply ingrained in our societies.
As a resource-based industry, tourism is also an ideal business for Indonesia to develop because of its multiplier effect and the labor-intensive nature of its operations. It directly benefits local communities economically. Travel businesses do their best when they use the local workforce, services, products and supplies.
The tourism industry also supports the integrity of a place. Destination-savvy travelers seek out businesses that emphasize the character of a locale. Tourism revenue in turn raises the perceived value of those assets.
Travel-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, transportation, handicrafts and cultural shows are all labor intensive, the very kind of enterprises needed to absorb the huge pool of job seekers here.
But it is precisely because of its multi-sectoral activities that the promotion of the tourism industry should involve not only the tourism ministry but all other state and private organizations that provide the basic infrastructure and public services, including immigration, customs, transportation, accommodation and security.

Source: The Jakarta Post, Wed, 03/12/2008

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Poor hygiene weakens RI's tourism: Study

The government will need to work extra hard to lure foreign visitors with this year's ambitious Visit Indonesia Year campaign, in the light of health and hygiene issues mentioned in a recent report.
The report, issued March 4 by Switzerland-based World Economic Forum (WEF), cited Indonesia's poor health and hygiene conditions and inadequate infrastructure as key disadvantages in attracting foreign visitors.
WEF ranked Indonesia 80th among 130 countries in its Travel and Competitiveness Index 2008, lower than neighbors Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Last year, Indonesia ranked 60th among 124 countries studied.
Indonesia's health facilities and hygiene received poor scores because of the country's low number of physicians (per capita), inadequate hospital beds, and poor access to improved sanitation and drinking water.
As Southeast Asia's largest economy, Indonesia also received low scores for quality of tourism infrastructure, comprising hotel rooms, presence of major car rental firms and automatic teller machines accepting Visa cards.
These problems were the main reasons for Indonesia's fall in ranking, WEF says.
Indonesia's edge in the competitiveness index related to competitive prices for goods and services, prioritization of travel and tourism spots, and the availability of qualified labor, the report said.
The index was arranged based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the WEF's own survey on qualitative institutional and business environment issues.
The index ranked Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Australia and Spain as the top five countries in the study (respectively).
As organizers of the high profile annual international business forum in Davos, Switzerland, the WEF is an independent international non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The forum was first established in January 1971, when a group of European business leaders met under the patronage of the European Commission and European industrial associations.
State Ministry of Culture and Tourism marketing director general Sapta Nirwandar told The Jakarta Post recently the government was in the process of improving tourism infrastructure, and making easier entry procedures for tourists.
"We are still in the process of fixing everything. We are now increasing promotions and cultural events overseas, simplifying visa procedures and improving the quality of service and human resource professionalism," he said.
Last year, some 5.51 million foreign tourists visited the world's largest archipelago, up from 4.87 million in 2006, according to data from to the Central Statistics Agency.
Singapore accounted for the largest number of visitors, with 1.46 million, followed by Malaysia (941,202), Japan (593,784), Australia (313,881), South Korea (423,098), China (335,172), Europe (528,171), and the United States (154,846), the agency reported.
"We have many interesting places and cultures, but many of them don't have good infrastructure or facilities to accommodate visitors' needs," said Thamrin Bhiwana Bachri, an executive at the State Ministry for Culture and Tourism.
"The facilities will include convenient hotels, clean public toilets, well-managed airports, and easy access to tourist attractions," he said.
For 2008, Indonesia has targeted to net seven million foreign visitors under the Visit Indonesia Year campaign funded by the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Sapta said, however, the figure was still far less than Singapore or Malaysia, which were targeting to this year lure some 10.2 million and 20.7 million foreign visitors respectively. (rff)

The 2008 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index
Rank Country Score (1-7 scale) 1 Switzerland 5.63 2 Austria 5.43 3 Germany 5.41 4 Australia 5.34 5 Spain 5.30 6 United Kingdom 5.28 7 United States 5.28 8 Sweden 5.27 9 Canada 5.26 10 France 5.23 16 Singapore 5.06 32 Malaysia 4.63 42 Thailand 4.37 80 Indonesia 3.70 81 Philippines 3.70 96 Vietnam 3.57 112 Cambodia 3.32
Indonesia's travel & tourism indicators (2007)
GDP (US$ millions) 10,167 Employment (1,000 jobs) 1,981
(Source: The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008; World Economic Forum)

Source: The Jakarta Post, Mon, 03/10/2008

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Tourism offers unmissable business opportunities for Indonesia

As with people of all nationalities, many Indonesians spend their whole lives in their provinces, never traveling far from home.
About 13 percent of the population travel beyond what is required by their daily routines. That figure typically drops by 2 or 3 percent when you eliminate those who travel unexpectantly owing to unforeseen business or family matters.
In a year, only 3 percent of Indonesians travel by plane, the same 3 percent who live the so-called "good life" -- that of plastic cards, new cars and luxury holidays -- while just over 1 percent of all Indonesians have traveled overseas in the last 12 months, either for business or pleasure.
The Javanese, residents of the world's most densely populated island, stay within the confines of Indonesia more than any other islander across the archipelago.
That's understandable, considering distances, availability and cost of convenient transportation and the reality that most people do not have friends or relatives outside of their immediate area.
Sixty-five percent of travelers use buses, making it the most popular form of transportation, even during holdidays. A further 20 percent hop on their family motorbike for vacation.
Another 7 percent travel during holidays by cars owned within the family or by friends, while a mere 2 percent take the boat or ferry.
These statistics are compiled by the country's largest syndicated survey operator, Roy Morgan Single Source, which surveys more than 27,000 Indonesian respondents annually.
The numbers, updated every 90 days, are estimated to reflect almost 90 percent of the population over the age of 14, representing a total of 140 million people.
All holiday-makers, regardless of the distances they travel, make a contribution to the local economy. Not many industries can claim to receive contributions from such a diverse range of customers.
Even before a traveler steps onto a bus or plane, a ticket has already been sold, a room has been booked. Taxi drivers, porters, doormen, chefs, waitresses and housekeeping staff all have jobs to do to support this one traveler.
As does the craftsman, the shopkeeper, the boatman, the barmaid -- the list goes on. If you trace the number of employees called into action by a single tourist couple, the number could well run into the hundreds.
Tourism is good for employment, but it is also good in so many other incalculable ways. The exchange of views, the mingling, the sharing of culture, the goodness that natural beauty can bring, the development of communal pride and purpose. No industry promotes human values, the philosophy to live and let live and the celebration of life more than tourism.
With tourism growing rapidly in Asia, Indonesia is lagging way behind its neighbors. While Vietnam receives more and more tourists every year, Indonesia, hampered by its Bali-centric philosophy, languishes.
The world knows little about Indonesia beyond Bali, and those visiting Bali fail to make a connection to the rest of Indonesia.
It could be argued that the number of underachieving locales in Indonesia rivals the combined total of all other ASEAN countries.
By their own initiative, regional and local budget airlines appear to be doing more to develop travel and tourism than any other business or organization, including the cash-strapped ministry of tourism.
However, airline passengers who aren't visiting friends and relatives need hotels, food, attractions, activities, shopping and night-life. The infrastructure is lacking.
Equally important is the need for a tourist-friendly local government that has its citizens' welfare at the top of its agenda.
Here is an open invitation to form a coalition of the willing and to do some good and make some money: would an official from the ministry, a provincial government, a bank or the Investment Coordinating Board please stand up?
An e-mail to this writer from any of the above would result in an enthusiastic response by a group of capable, experienced investors who wish to execute a textbook construction of a new resort that would make proud all concerned.
If challenged to put my energy where my mouth is by readers of this column, I would join this coalition and dedicate as much time as I could to bring an eco-friendly, socially responsible resort to fruition in Indonesia.
It can be done, and with a greater dividend than any new city shopping mall could ever offer.
The writer can be contacted at Debnath.Guharoy@roymorgan.com

Source: The Jakarta Post, Tuesday, 03/11/2008

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Kembalilah ke Indonesia!

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