THE INDONESIAN Government has estimated it will take two to three years before worldwide visitor levels return to the 10m mark it achieved in 1997.
The destination has been hit by a series of catastrophes, starting with the Asian economic crisis of 1997, forest fires causing smog in the same year, the political crisis in 1998 and rioting last year.
Airline seat capacity stood at 5.27m last year, down 13.6% compared to 1998. Cruise passengers dropped by 50% to 24,065 in 1999.
The Indonesian Department of Tourism and Arts has been renamed the Office of State Tourism and Arts. The state minister will be responsible for marketing the country’s tourism as a whole, while individual provinces will be free to develop their own marketing and promotional plans.
The tourism office has introduced a four-stage programme to recoup travel.
The plan sees this year as a rescue phase, next year as a rehabilitation phase, 2002 as returning to normal tourism figures and 2003 as an expansion phase.
Meanwhile, plans by Conrad International Hotels for a new 500-room hotel and residential apartments in Jakarta, Indonesia have been postponed.
Conrad International senior vice-president Clement Barter said: “The planning for the hotel has been done and we hope to open in 2003/4, but because of the turndown in Asia we cannot put a definite date on it.”