Jakarta tourism recovering rapidly after terror attacks, UNWTO says

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has said that the tragic bomb attacks that took place on July 17, 2009 have undeniably shocked Jakarta and the entire country.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has said that the tragic bomb attacks that took place on July 17, 2009 have undeniably shocked Jakarta and the entire country.

However, there is good news on the tourism from. According to the latest UNWTO mission, carried out by Xu Jing, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific from 21-22 July 2009, Indonesiaโ€™s capital โ€œis recovering rapidly from the sudden shock.โ€

Apart from the specific areas where Hotel JW Marriot and Hotel Ritz Carlton are located, life has basically restored to its normality. โ€œJakarta did stop for a moment on Friday, but not for long. We are not going to allow terrorists to dictate and allow them to make Jakarta their hostage,โ€ DKI Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said.

Latest data, obtained from Indonesiaโ€™s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and confirmed by the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, reveal that there is no obvious tourist exodus from Jakarta nor from Bali as a result of the bomb blast, UNWTO said. โ€œThe government of Indonesia, right after the incident, took a number of immediate actions in order to minimize the negative impacts of the attacks. A crisis center was immediately established in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to provide the tourism industry as well as the individual visitors with the comprehensive information and the latest updates of the situation.”

According to the UNWTO, Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik “personally switched on the Ministryโ€™s Emergency Response System and the Standard Operations Procedures (SOP), following the UNWTOโ€™s guidelines for crisis in the tourism sector.โ€

โ€œThere is no room for terrorism to kill tourism,โ€ said Dr. Taleb Rifai, secretary-general a.i. of UNWTO. โ€œThere is no room for terrorists to use tourism to kill innocent visitors.โ€

According to the UNWTO, despite the temporary setbacks, Indonesia, as a world-famous tourist destination will continue its charm of cultural and natural diversity. โ€œIn fact, Indonesia performed exceptionally well last year, achieving a 16.8 percent increase of international tourist arrivals. From January to May 2009, tourist arrivals to Bali, Indonesiaโ€™s prime destination, were up by as high as 9.35 percent when most destinations in the region were adversely affected by the financial and economic downturn. Time and again, Indonesia has manifested itself as an exemplary model to use tourism as an effective instrument not only to confront the short term economic difficulties but more importantly as a driving engine for job creation, trade and development.โ€

At the press conference held on Wednesday in Jakarta, Xu Jing, who was also taken to the site for inspection, congratulated the government of Indonesia and the tourism industry of the country for their professional approach and efficient capacity in handling the crisis.

Over the phone on 17 July, the very day of the attack, Rifai told Minister Wacik: โ€œThe current difficulties are short in nature. As long as the industry rallies together to overcome the setbacks, the country will continue to build an even stronger tourism sector in the nearest future.โ€

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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