Indonesian Tourism’s Dilemma by David Beirman

Since the October 2002 Bali bombing, Indonesia’s tourism industry has experienced more than its fair share of crisis events.

The December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami which devastated the Ache province in NW Sumatra, did not affect the country’s tourism infrastructure, but certainly influenced perceptions.

Terrorist attacks in Jakarta targeting the Marriott Hotel and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, the October 2005 Bali suicide bombings and most recently in May 2006 the massive earthquake in central Java and the eruption of Mount Merapi near Yogyakarta have collectively impacted on tourism to Indonesia, with since 2000 international visitor number to Indonesia having stagnated at around 5 million per annum and per capita length of stay and tourism expenditure dropping.

On a more positive note it could be argued that under the circumstances it is a significant achievement that Indonesian tourism has avoided a massive decline in international tourism arrivals over the past four years.

The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and the country’s tourism industry has made considerable progress in the fields of crisis and recovery management under difficult circumstances, with its web sites informative, timely and honest in dealing with crisis events.

The information available to the media, the travel industry and the travelling public following the Central Java earthquake in May 2006 was excellent and a far cry from the confused and often vague response to earlier crises.

Both the government and the private sector of the Indonesian tourism industry have facilitated travel industry leaders and the travel journalists from significant source market countries to see Bali and other major tourism sites in Indonesia for themselves.

In addition, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and the private sector have embarked on visits to major source markets running promotional and briefing events in conjunction with media campaigns.

However there is one glaring gap in Indonesia’s tourism recovery strategy. Indonesia has little or no full-time national tourism office representation in its major source markets.

Based on the 2004 arrival figures over 82% of foreign visitors to Indonesia come from ten countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, USA, Germany, UK and Netherlands in that order.

In order to effectively sustain a recovery program, there are real benefits in maintaining a full-time marketing and tourism information presence in major source markets and adapt the message to suit these markets.

Valuable as an effective e-marketing program is, the travel industry, media, and the public really appreciate ready access to a human face and a voice which is both knowledgeable about the destination and sensitive to the concerns of the specific market and able to effectively communicate a message.

It also represents a demonstrable commitment to the promotion of Indonesia in that specific market or country and supports the tour operators, travel agents, airlines and hoteliers which promote Indonesia from the source market. A representative presence is especially valuable during times of challenge.

Effective recovery marketing of a destination which has experienced a range of crisis events (certainly the case with Indonesia) necessarily requires a multi-tracked approach. The Indonesian Ministry of tourism and the private sector of Indonesia’s tourism industry deserve credit for the progress they have made in developing and implementing a tourism recovery strategy.

As tourism current represents a major sector of Indonesia’s economy and has vast potential for growth it would be in their interest to move beyond the current reliance on e-marketing and promotional forays to take the logical step at establishing an ongoing presence in those countries and regions which have the potential to deliver tourism growth.

David Beirman is the Director of Struan & Associates and leading global tourism crisis and recovery specialist.

E mail: [email protected]

A report by The Mole