Indonesia has yet to tap its cruise industry potential
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 05/31/2011 11:05 PM
A | A | A |
Indonesia has not tapped the large potential of the cruise ship industry
despite its vast maritime resources due to several challenges, an international
seminar on cruise development on Monday heard.
The challenges include inadequate conditions, facilities, security and
cleanliness at ports and policies, the seminar heard.
"None of the ports in Indonesia is currently of international standard," cruise
management consultant Hugues Lamy said at the seminar organized by the Culture
and Tourism Ministry.
Lamy said internationally standardized cruise facilities were adapted to the
sizes and capacities of cruise ships. The facilities would also cover ports and
anchorages in compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security
Code (ISPS), such as tendering, and attractive and clean environments, he added.
Lamy said Indonesia's policies on immigration and cabotage also affected the
cruise ship industry.
"Port authorities need to better understand the cruise ship activity," he said,
adding that immigration processes in Indonesia should also be better organized.
Lamy further said the demand for cruise services around Indonesia, especially
its the eastern part of the country, was increasing. However, many cruise ship
companies did not want to take the risks due to the cabotage principle.
The principle requires all vessels operating in Indonesian waters to be
domestically owned. The government exempts cruise ships and offshore vessels.
"Cruise ship companies don't want to take risks because they are very concerned
about unpredictable last-minute arbitrary decisions the government may
declare," Lamy said. "A regulation [is needed] to formalize conditions a cruise
ship is subjected to, paying taxes for example, in order to cruise in
Indonesian waters."
Nikolaos Antalis, a port captain with Royal Caribbean International, echoed
similar concerns about the cruise ship industry in Indonesia.
Antalis suggested urgent port improvements such as dredging channels to a depth
of 11 meters to accommodate all sizes of cruise ships, dredging and maintaining
to a depth of 10 meters the turning basins and across piers, improving cruise
ship berths, providing facilities for disabled passengers and cleaning ports
and surrounding areas.
"Passengers will act as ambassadors to promote Indonesia in their home
countries so it is highly important to give a good image of Indonesia as a
tourism destination," he said.
Ministry director general for tourism and marketing Sapta Nirwandar said
Indonesia registered 178 cruise calls with 113,875 passengers in 2011 and
expected to increase this to 2,015 in 2012 with an estimated 137,279 passengers.
Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said on the sidelines of the seminar
that the government was trying to improve regulations and cooperation to
benefit the cruise industry.
"We have a big market but we are still unable to fulfill market demand," he
said.
"We will work with state-owned enterprises, including port operators, and other
ministries, particularly the Transportation Ministry, to improve the sector."
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