SARS is sinking the tourist industry in
Asia, reports Eric Ellis.
What was Indonesian president Megawati
Sukarnoputri thinking?
That's the question thousands of Balinese, particularly those in the already crippled tourist industry, are asking after her decision to impose $US50 ($82) visa fees on most foreigners travelling to Indonesia. Coming barely six months after the October terrorist attack, the war in Iraq and now the SARS epidemic, Megawati's decision seems muddle-headed at best, foolish at worst.
The enigmatic, part-Balinese Megawati has decreed that the fee be levied on visitors of 37 mostly western countries, including Australia, who charge travelling Indonesians for reciprocal entry to their shores.
Indonesian Justice Minister Yuzril Ihza Mahendra says the new fees are to "boost Indonesia's dignity ... so we can deal with other nations on an equal basis". While such notions may temporarily puff the national chest in pre-election times, Megawati risks losing more votes from impoverished Indonesians reliant on tourism to earn a living.
Tourism is Indonesia's second-biggest earner after resources and much of that money is generated in Bali. The island is still struggling to right itself after the October 12 bombs when hotel occupancies plummeted to 5%-10%, abandoned by spooked foreign tourists adhering to their governments' so-far-unfounded travel warnings.
Generously discounted air fares from Garuda and Singapore Airlines helped boost those numbers to near break-even 40% early in the new year but then war loomed, discouraging the higher-end spa set from Europe from flying over the Middle East. Now, this month, the outbreak of SARS has hammered an extra nail into Bali's economic coffin and occupancies in Balinese hotels have slipped back to about 15% to 20%.
Still, as far as bad marketing is concerned, Megawati may have shot herself in the foot – the visa fee decree coincided with an expensive Visit Indonesia campaign – but for tourist officials in SARS-afflicted Hong Kong, it has been plain bad luck.
SARS has so far killed 42 there and climbing, and with the city in a virtual quarantine lockdown, Hong Kong's Tourism Board was unable to pull a glossy pre-SARS magazine campaign featuring the line "Hong Kong will take your breath away".
Shortness of breath has been an alarming SARS symptom. "As soon as the SARS outbreak began, we realised, obviously, it would be pretty embarrassing," said Simon Clennell, assistant manager of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
The board has been able to withdraw international billboards bearing the slogan but readers of magazines such as Conde Nast Traveler and Vogue can snicker with wry Schadenfreude at the marketeers' misfortune over the next two months – and stay away.