Bali group says floods tarnish RI's tourism image

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

Heads of two influential tourism associations expressed their concern here Tuesday over the negative impact the recent flood in Jakarta would have on the country's tourism image, particularly as it had just kicked off the 2008 tourism campaign.

"What we should worry about is the impact of the flood on the image we would like to present to the world during the 2008 Visit Indonesia Year," executive director of Bali Hotels Association Djinaldi Gosana said.

The Bali chapter of the Association of the Indonesia Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) expressed similar concerns.

"The news of the closure of the Soekarno-Harta International airport must have traveled far and wide in the international community by now," said ASITA head Al Purwa, adding that such an incident wasn't the kind of positive image the country's tourism industry wanted to convey to its global potential market.

The flood that inundated a strip of toll road leading to the airport forced the closure of Soekarno-Hatta International airport from Friday to Sunday. It was reopened Monday morning.

More than 200 domestic and international flights were delayed during the closure, which also affected the arrival times of around 14 flights to Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Al Purwa welcomed the government's decision to construct an elevated road along the flood-prone strip of the toll road as a way to cope with possible flooding in the future.

"The government should carry out that plan as soon as possible," he said.

Toll operator PT Jasa Marga said the construction stage of the two-lane elevated road would commence next March. The elevated road would start at Kilometer 24 of Sedyatmo toll road and end at Kilometer 27. Sedyatmo toll road is the main highway connecting downtown Jakarta with the airport.

The actual, short-term effect of the airport's closure to Bali tourism industry, said both Djinaldi and Al Purwa, wasn't significant.

"Fortunately, we were not in high-season during the flood, so even though many flights from Jakarta to Denpasar, and vice versa, had to be delayed, it did not have much effect on tourism in Bali," Djinaldi said.

"There were some cancellations, but it was not significant," Al Purwa said.

The head of the Bali Tourism Agency, I Gede Nurjaya, said the agency had yet to calculate the number of tourists who had to cancel their trips to Bali due to the airport's closure and flood.

Djinaldi said hotels in Bali would experience a brief high season from Feb.7 to Feb.10 during Imlek (Chinese New Year) celebrations. Last year, the island saw a steep surge of tourist arrivals during that period.

"We expect the government will have taken care of the flood problem by that time," he said.