Reflection on Tourism in Indonesia

Indonesia is a big country, rich in natural resources, cultures, and natural wonders.

in one of the slogan seen in Singapore public buses, it is written there that Indonesia has the most varied destinations. The question is, why tourism in Indonesia seems to be confined to Bali and maybe surrounding areas and not to the rest of the region?

My recent trip to Korea taught me a lesson. In order for a place or a country to attract tourist, it takes much more than having the object of attraction, be it an ancient temple (e.g. Borobudur), mountains, lakes with wonderful scenery. All these are essential, but countries without them can fabricate object attraction out of nothing (casino, fake mountain, fake folklore, fake stories) to make the place interesting.

Apart from the objects of attraction, there are other elements required to encourage local tourism:
1. availability of materials/brochures in language understood by tourists (English, Indonesian, Chinese?)
2. availability of clean public toilets
3. accessibility to the places
4. last but not least, security

Indonesia Tourism Board, if there is such a board, should look carefully into those areas if they really want to attract foreign dollars into Indonesia. Indonesia as a whole, need to pump in money into this field, if they want serious income in this area.

Korea, suffered a lot, as many other countries did during the 1998 monetary crisis. While all ministers have nothing to offer, the tourism minister took up the challenge, build up sites, promote korean dramas and movies, in order to attract tourists to come to Korea. And it was a major success!

Can Indonesia do that too?

When I return to my hometown a few years ago, I visited the palace and the tomb of the late King of the Riau Malay Kingdom. There is nothing there except for an oldman smoking in a corner. There are more people coming to Tanjung Pinang for the Vices.

Tourism is a serious business and can offer serious income to Indonesia. With Singapore as a hub, surely Indonesia can think of something to do to attract a fraction of tourists visiting Singapore.

Or even if Indonesia choose not to rely on foreign tourists, the economy can still be greatly increased if local tourism is encouraged. China rely a lot on local tourism as well for their economy. But even if you want to do that, accessibility, security and other conveniences have to be taken care of.

As an Indonesian for the first 30 years of my life, I have to confess, apart from visiting Batam, and other places with escorts of local friends, it has never occurred in my mind to visit places for pure tourism purpose. Why? because of perceived fear, for Indonesia is still regarded as a place not safe for 'outsiders'.

Indonesia has a lot to offer, there are many who wants to take the offer, can the authorities help to establish the link between the two is the key to success.