As we all know, 2008 is Visit Indonesia year. The government had lofty goals of attracting seven million tourists by the end of December, and engineered a nice publicity blitz to make it happen. Heck, Visit Indonesia even has its own Facebook page.Alas, world financial events intervened. The Dow dropped by 40%, the Chinese stock market by half, housing tumbled all over the world, and as a result ordinary folks out there are feeling extremely cash-poor. Their retirement funds have tumbled, they couldn't sell their homes if they tried, and they're trying to come up with their next mortgage payment, not go on a lavish trip overseas.
That's why it's such unfortunate timing for a big tourism push, which was meant to vault Indonesia into a Thailand-style vacation hotspot. God bless him, Indonesia's tourism minister is trying to put a positive spin on the world financial meltdown, by saying that people are stressed out and need vacation more than ever.
Maybe so. But when people are simply struggling to fill their gas tank or pay their utility bills, and their credit cards are already maxed out, it's not just a winning equation for the tourism industry.
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