Expansion of the Hospitality Industry- Natural Disasters and Tourism- Part 3

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This is the third part of the expansion series on the effect of natural disasters to the hospitality industry. Part 1 and 2 were published during January of this year. This article focuses on Indonesia – one of the most devastated countries affected by the Tsunami in December 2004.

The epicenter of the earthquake in 2004 that led to the loss of thousands of lives, displacement of millions of families, and destruction of millions of properties, was off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Before the Tsunami, Indonesia was also one of the most frequented place for tourist. The country was already on the road to recovery from the Bali incident. The foreign visitors to Indonesia have been swarming its different known destinations. The catastrophic event created a downturn to the recovering country.

Although the places devastated by the tsunami were not tourist hot spots, the tourism of Indonesia was greatly affected. Many foreign visitors booked for the country cancelled their flights. It was worse already that their country has been affected by internal conflicts but much worse that the tsunami has added to the economic and financial suffering of the country.

International Organizations like the United Nations and ADB assisted the creation of programs that would help the country to recover. The government of Indonesia also created programs to invite foreign visitors to the country. One part of the program was to utilize the country’s volcanic crater lakes as tourist attractions.

Among the more aggressive reconstruction program is on the province of Aceh. It is said to be the largest reconstruction effort in the developing world. There is about $7 billion dollars committed to help recover one of the places most devastated in Indonesia.

As stated above, the tsunami did not hit any great tourist hot spot in Indonesia. The problem with dipping tourism happened when a terrorist attack in Bali happened on October last year. This attack drove the tourism of Indonesia down to almost 37%. No need to worry, though, as increased security and increased communication are facilitating the recovery of Bali.

China is also helping with the tourism of Indonesia. Since the Chinese people are the best patrons of Indonesian tourist hot spots. In 2004 it was estimated that over 84,000 people from the mainland China were vacationing over Indonesia. This statistic is projected to hop to 500,000 in two years. The Indonesian minister of tourism has been promoting to China that Indonesia is still a safe tourist destination.

Hobbled by the tsunami and some intermittent terrorist attacks, Indonesia is still showing resilience from all these trials. What a hardy and inspirational people the Indonesians are. Despite a lot of adversity and inner turmoil, they are still showing that they are a pride of the Asian race.

Please Note: This is the “Part 12” in a series of articles focusing on the “Expansion of the Hospitality Industry”. The next Expansion of the Hospitality Industry will discuss the issue of delayed and cancelled projects

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