Tourism

 

Yogyakarta Safe for Tourists

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Despite the recent anti-U.S. sentiment, Yogyakarta is still a safe place to  visit for foreign tourists, observers said here on Thursday.   Speaking in a dialog held here at Yogyakarta Hyatt Regency Hotel, Comr.  Richard Nainggolan of the Yogyakarta Police detective unit convinced the  meeting's participants that the province was still safe for foreign tourists.

"There have been no major incidents that have disturbed foreign tourists in  the province," he said.

Some 150 participants, including 13 diplomats from 11 embassies in Jakarta ,  attended the two-day seminar on the recovery of the Indonesian tourist  industry which was organized by the Office of the State Minister of Culture  and Tourism.

Keynote speaker Ichlasul Amal, who is also Rector of Gadjah Mada University,  shared the same view, saying that Yogyakarta was quite different from   Jakarta . He said it was true that there were many student demonstrations in  the city, but they were quite different from those in other cities.

"Many of our foreign students have told me that they enjoy Yogyakarta 's style  of street demonstrations and that some of them even took part in some of the  activities," Amal said.

Amal also said that he had tried many times to explain the true situation in   Yogyakarta to foreigners including ambassadors in Jakarta . Yet, he always  found it difficult to explain as most of them could not make a distinction between Yogyakarta and Jakarta .

"They think Yogjakarta is the same as Jakarta ," he said, adding that it was  the task of all Indonesians to tell the truth about the city to help the  country's ailing tourist industry.