Travel advisories upset Asian nations
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By Dirk Beveridge
Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A tropical beach with nobody on it may be the stuff of travelers' dreams, but it's a nightmare for many Asian nations after the Bali bombings stirred fears of more terrorist attacks in paradise.
Tourists fled the idyllic Indonesian resort after the blasts killed nearly 200 people last month, and many are avoiding other regional destinations that have seen troubles, including Philippine islands where foreigners were kidnapped and parts of South Asia hit by bloodshed and political tensions.
Asian countries, which consider tourism a major source of cash and jobs, say wealthy Western nations are making the situation worse by issuing advisories that scare people away from safe destinations. During the weekend, for example, U.S. State Department cautioned its citizens against traveling in Southeast Asia, citing the risks of terrorist actions.
"They issue advisories based on the first information they receive, not on exclusive intelligence, which is causing panic," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said.
The tourism crisis will be in focus today and tomorrow when leaders of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations hold a summit, along with China, Japan, South Korea, India and South Africa.
The ASEAN plan to sign a new deal promoting tourism — for example by easing visa requirements and boosting air services — today.
The leaders also plan a statement attacking the travel advisories, which they say only help achieve the objectives of the terrorists.
"We call on the international community to avoid indiscriminately advising their citizens to refrain from visiting or otherwise dealing with our countries, in the absence of established evidence to substantiate rumors of possible terrorist attacks," said a draft of the statement being circulated at the meeting yesterday.
For now, many are just worried about how much business they will lose and how long it will take to bounce back.
"We have huge losses every day," grumbled Roberto S. Jotikasthira, first vice president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents. Dozens of European tour groups have been canceling visits, including some big ones like planned tours by 400 people from Italy and 1,200 from Portugal, he said.
"It's a big snowball effect," said John Koldowski, managing director of strategic intelligence at the Pacific Asia Travel Association. He called it "unfair to brand a whole country or a whole region" with travel advisories that can needlessly frighten tourists.
Although the association is holding its annual meeting next year in Bali, it had to cancel a sustainable tourism conference in Western Java, Indonesia, just days after the Bali bombings.
"We were all set to proceed with that, but a lot of our speakers from the U.S., the U.K. and Australia were advised not to go," Koldowski said.
The U.S. travel advisory, similar to warnings issued by nations in Europe as well as Japan and Australia, noted "the potential for terrorist actions against U.S. citizens abroad, specifically in the Southeast Asia region."
Many in the industry are furiously noting that no such sweeping blanket warnings get put out when terrorists have struck elsewhere — for example when the IRA bombed targets in Britain and Ireland.
"You have no travel advisories for Spain, where Basque terrorists stage attacks, but you have them for Laos, Burma and Thailand, which are among the safest places in the world for tourists," said Luzi A. Matzig, whose Asian Trails travel agency in Bangkok promotes visits to remote areas of Southeast Asia.
Industry experts predict travel will recover, and the host of the ASEAN summit, Cambodia, is proof that it can happen. Cambodia is still recovering from years of war and genocide, and cleaning up all of its minefields will take decades.
