Jakarta is Recovering Rapidly from the Bomb Attacks
Jakarta, Indonesia / Madrid, Spain, 23 July 2009
The tragic bomb attacks that took place on 17 July 2009 have
undeniably shocked Jakarta and the entire country. However, the latest
UNWTO mission, carried out by Xu Jing, Regional Representative for Asia
and the Pacific from 21-22 July 2009, indicates that the city is
recovering rapidly from the sudden shock.
Apart
from the specific areas where Hotel JW Marriot and Hotel Ritz Carlton
are located, life has basically restored to its normality. “Jakarta 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”. Fauzi Bowo, Governor of DKI Jakarta made the above comment on
21 July at the Jakarta Media Centre.
Latest data, obtained from Indonesia’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. The 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
Centre 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. Jero Wacik, Minister of Culture and Tourism personally
switched on the Ministry’s Emergency Response System and the Standard
Operations Procedures (SOP), following the UNWTO’s guidelines for
crisis in the tourism sector.
There is no room for terrorism to kill tourism. There is no
room for terrorists to use tourism to kill innocent visitors, said Dr.
Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General a.i. of UNWTO. Despite the
temporary setbacks, Indonesia, as a world-famous tourist destination
will continue its charm of cultural and natural diversity. In fact,
Indonesia performed exceptionally well last year, achieving a 16.8 %
increase of international tourist arrivals. From January to May 2009,
tourist arrivals to Bali, Indonesia’s prime destination, were up by as
high as 9.35 % 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.
At the press conference held on 22 July 2009 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. The 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, as indicated by Taleb Rifai to Minister Wacik over the phone on
17 July, the very day of the attack.
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