VISIT INDONESIA YEAR: CAN WE MAKE IT?

What comes to your mind when your friends talking about tourism in Indonesia? How many provinces in Indonesia have you visited for vacation? Is the word beautiful enough to describe this equatorial emerald? Yes, in my opinion, Indonesia is a group of islands stretching under the equatorial line and blessed with richness of natural beauty and amazing civilisation.

Tourism in Indonesia is managed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which is headquartered in Jakarta. When we were in the elementary school, our teachers often said that Indonesia was an archipelago consisting of more than 17,000 islands and blessed with natural beauty. They told us that the beauty shining between the big landmasses of Asia and Australia had attracted many people to come and show their admiration to the motherland. It is not wrong when they said so. There is a significant increase in term of number of foreign visitors arriving in Indonesia as year goes by. More than four millions people from Asia-Pacific region flock to Indonesia each year (Wikipedia, 2010).

The Indonesian archipelago, which stretches as far as 5,000 kilometres from Sabang to Merauke, indulges tourists with natural beauty, cultural experiences and metropolitan lifestyle. Some places have been long known for their beauty and uniqueness. Bali has been the nation’s top most destination. This island offers both nature and cultural tourism, which is able to boost the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia. Tourists can also feel the Indonesian modern lifestyle in the big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya.

In 2008, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched a program to boost the number of tourists called Visit Indonesia Year 2008. This was a commemoration of the centennial National Awakening Day that dated back to 1908 (Wikipedia, 2010). This breakthrough had resulted in an increase by the end of the year. In 2009 and 2010, they launched the same branding, Visit Indonesia Year, with the same goal. However, VIY 2010 aims more on domestic tourists by developing Visit Museum Year 2010 as the development of VIY 2010 itself. Visit Museum 2010 has an aim to gain interests among the citizens to learn more about the nation’s identity through museums.

Although the ministry have tried to improve the quality of tourism in Indonesia, there are still many obstacles to face. We can claim that the ministry has succeeded managing tourism in Indonesia. Programmes like Visit Indonesia Year and Visit Museum have boosted the number of tourists. However, the length of stay of foreign tourists has declined in last decade (Salim, 2009). There are some obstacles and threats that have caused this problem, including terrorism, over funding and wrong policies.

On October 12, 2002, there was a bombing in Kuta, Bali that had killed more than 200 people, of which most of them are foreign tourists. This bombing has led to several bombings happened in the following years. These bombings had made some nations lifting their travel warning to Indonesia. This condition has made tourism in Indonesia suffered. The number of tourists visiting each year started to decline. However, VIY 2008 has improved the situation.

Despite an increase in the quantity of tourists, Indonesia still cannot improve its tourism to be better. Bali, which has become the nation’s top most destination, is over funded. Most of the national budget for tourism goes to Bali (Agung, 2010). The previously natural beauty has now transformed into sparkling urbanised area. Dr. Emil Salim, an advisor of President Yudhoyono stated that the reason of Indonesian tourism being left behind is its wrong strategy in marketing its tourism. While we see our neighbours in South East Asia have their own branding of tourism, Bali and Indonesia lacks of good branding.

The branding problem is reflected to the nation’s readiness in preparing the arrival of tourists. In spite of increase in tourists’ arrival, we can still see that not every region in Indonesia has been ready to participate in the tourism industry. Indonesia has many beautiful things to see, yet they have not been supported well. One thing that most tourists do not want to meet is the street vendors. If you go to Borobudur, you will see many street vendors selling their goods to tourists forcefully. Budi Susetyo, one of the famous tourist guides in Yogyakarta, told me in a training held by the local government one of his awful experience. One day he is asked to guide the guests from a cruise ship in Semarang. When their cruise ship took ashore, they told him that they did not want to go to Borobudur due to its annoying street vendors. It had made him changing the plan to tea plantation in Slawi, Tegal. This story reflected how much tourists are annoyed by the presence of street vendors. Beside the problem on street vendors, Indonesia has to face the problem of decline in quality.

Tourism in Indonesia faces one more problem, over funding to Bali. Bali that has been long known as the top most destination in Indonesia is the product of wrong policies applied in Suharto era. The government has tried to develop this island into the centre of tourism-based industry. Thus, the funding flows more to Bali than to other regions that have unexploited natural beauty. This has resulted into small number of tourists visiting other tourism regions like Yogyakarta and Manado. The majestic Borobudur that we have adored for long is not as world widely famous as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. No more than 100,000 foreign tourists visit this World Heritage Site each year (Agung, 2010). The same thing happened to Bunaken and Tana Toraja in North and South Sulawesi. Due to lack of in-shape road access, these tourist destinations remain unseen for some tourists. Even worse, Ujung Kulon and Komodo National Parks receive few visitors despite their uniqueness and fame among tourists.

Talking about tourist attractions, there are many beautiful places in Indonesia that are still ‘virgin’. Some of them are not managed well, even for places that are closed to a big city like Jakarta. Many tourists, including local tourists, have not seen the beauty of the treasures that we have.

God has made Indonesia special with the beauty that we can show to foreigners off. It is proven by the gasps and ‘Ooohs’ that come out from the tourists visiting Indonesia for the first time. Even, some of tourists I have guided said that they would come back to enjoy their second home, Indonesia. However, the government, along with citizens, have to work hard to make the programme of Visit Indonesia Year not just nonsense. We should make them say, “Indonesia, it’s my second home.”

Leo Bayu Kusuma

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REFERENCES

Agung, A.A. Gde. (2010, January 22). How Indonesia’s tourism become national tragedy. A.A. Gde Agung, (Ed.), The Brunei Times. (Original work published January 22, 2010). Retrieved February 12, 2010: http://www.bt.com.bn/en/opinion/2010/01/22/how-indonesias-tourism-becomes-national-tragedy

Anonymous. (2009). Professor urges Bali to stay loyal at its root: Indonesian elder statesman says Bali tourism has lost its bearing. In Anonymous, (Ed.), E Turbo News. (original work published 2009, December 8). Retrieved February 12, 2010: http://www.eturbonews.com/13180/indonesian-elder-statesman-says-bali-tourism-has-lost-its-bearin

Anonymous. (2009, September 5). Despite Increasing Arrivals Bali Tourism Still Suffering. Retrieved February 12, 2010, Bali Discovery Tours: http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=5222

Anonymous. (2010, January 27). Indonesia New Campaign: Visit Museum 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2010, Indonesia Tourism Official Website: http://www.indonesia.travel/en/news/view/115/indonesia-new-campaign-visit-museum-2010

Tourism in Indonesia. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Indonesia