Indonesia and World Tourism News

Azerbaijani family seeks Jakarta help to promote Indonesia

Many in Indonesia may never have heard of Azerbaijan, a beautiful country in the South Caucasus region. This former republic of the defunct Soviet Union is also absent from many maps published in this country.

However, thanks to the efforts of one man, many people in Azerbaijan are familiar with Indonesia.

Prof. Habib M. Zarbaliyev is the only Indonesianist in Azerbaijan and has devoted most of his life to learning the language, literature, history and culture of Indonesia and introducing the country to his compatriots.

“I have been promoting Indonesia in my country through mediums such as television and radio programs, seminars and cultural programs for a long time. I have written about 60 articles to date on Indonesia in various newspapers, magazines and academic journals,” Zarbaliyev told The Jakarta Post recently in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, speaking fluently in the Indonesian language.

“Every Lebaran we organize a small get-together with the Indonesian community in Baku,” he said, adding that there are around 25 Indonesians, predominately working for oil and gas companies, currently residing in Baku.

Zarbaliyev initially studied the Indonesian language in Russia.

“At first I joined the Faculty of Arabic Literature at St. Petersburg University in Russia. But I was attracted to the beauty of Indonesia after reading a few Indonesian short stories and decided to transfer my studies to an Indonesian language course,” he said.

According to Zarbaliyev, Indonesia and Azerbaijan share many similarities, especially in the areas of language and culture.

“The majority of people in both countries are Muslims. There are so many similarities between our cultures. There are also strong Arabic and Persian influences in both the Indonesian and Azerbaijani languages,” Zarbaliyev said.

“Both languages use words such as salam (greeting), kitab (book) and istirahat (rest). We have around 2,000 root words in our language which have the same meaning as Indonesian words.”

Zarbaliyev graduated in 1981 and obtained his PhD from St. Petersburg University in 1985. Between 1982 and 1987 he worked as a lecturer at St. Petersburg University and as a research fellow at Azerbaijan’s Academy of Language Science. Between 1987 and 1991 he was a research fellow at Leiden University in The Netherlands and between 2001 and 2002 was a research fellow at Malaysia’s Literature and Language Council.

After becoming a professor in 1998, Zarbaliyev transferred to the language department of the Azerbaijan State Economic University where to this day he continues to teach the Azerbaijani language, a member of the Oguz subdivision of the Turkic language family. He is also currently teaching at the Azerbaijan University of Languages.

Besides teaching the Indonesian language at various universities in Azerbaijan and abroad, Zarbaliyev, a great fan of Indonesian writer Pramudya Ananta Toer, spends much of his time writing books and translating the works of several prominent Indonesian writers into the Azerbaijani language.

In an effort to further promote Indonesia in Azerbaijan, Zarbaliyev, who will turn 54 this September, has also been dedicating much of his energy to two special projects.

One of these projects involves opening an Indonesian language department at the Azerbaijan University of Languages in Baku and the other is to write a comprehensive book on Indonesia in the Azerbaijani language.

“These projects have been my long-time dream. Luckily, they will be materialized very soon. Insyallah (God willing), if everything goes according to plan, we will open the Indonesian department in September this year,” Zarbaliyev said.

He said that in the initial stages, he and one of his four children will teach Indonesian in the department.

“My daughter Laura Zarbaliyev is currently studying in Yogyakarta. She will complete her master’s degree in August or September. We will both teach Indonesian,” he said.

Laura, a recipient of Indonesia’s Non-Aligned Movement scholarship, said she is looking forward to teaching Indonesian in the new department.

“It was my father’s idea that I should learn the Indonesian language. In the beginning it was a bit difficult, but now I can speak Indonesian fluently. I enjoyed residing for almost three years in Yogyakarta. I will be returning home soon to start my new job,” Laura, a postgraduate student in applied linguistics at the Yogyakarta State University, told the Post via telephone from Yogyakarta.

Zarbaliyev has visited Indonesia on four occasions, but has never stayed in the country for a prolonged period of time. He admits that it is difficult to master the pronunciation of a language outside the country in which it is spoken.

“I used to practice speaking Indonesian in front of the mirror. I definitely think it would be beneficial if there were one or two lecturers from Indonesia teaching in the new department,” Zarbaliyev said.

He is confident that the Indonesian government will help in this regard.

“We have already sought the help of the Indonesian government and the Language Center (Pusat Bahasa) in Jakarta. We want at least one lecturer from Indonesia to teach the Indonesian language to Azerbaijani students. We hope they will help us,” Zarbaliyev, who is married to a Russian language expert, said.

He said he hopes his new book will be published in 2008.

“My new book, Indonesia, will be approximately 500 pages in length. It will contain information about Indonesia’s history, geography, literature, language, ethnography, culture, arts, politics, economy and state structure, among other topics,” Zarbaliyev said.

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Baku

Add comment May 16th, 2007

What will bring the tourists to Indonesia?

Indonesia has an opportunity to boost national development, especially in rural areas, through tourism.

To boost the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia the government is extending the visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility to include the citizens of 11 more countries, in addition to the 52 countries already enjoying the privilege. Citizens from Algeria, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Panama, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Tunisia will now be permitted a VOA.

This follows a recommendation submitted last year by the Culture and Tourism Ministry to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, for the extension of the VOA facility to include 19 more selected countries with the aim to increase tourism in Indonesia. However, government officials recently approved only 11, while the other eight countries remain on the waiting list.

As a major international tourist destination, Indonesia should prepare for the next decade, during which the tourism industry and international travel are projected to grow by 4.5 percent annually.

The tourism industry in Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing in the world, and is expected to grow by an average of 10.4 percent during the next decade, only one step behind North America’s 11 percent. Last year, 56 million international travelers visited countries in Southeast Asia, an 8 percent rise from the previous year.

Indonesia is expected to cash in on these positive developments. As in many other countries in Southeast Asia, however, Indonesia’s tourism development is not without problems and challenges that must be addressed. Aside from strong competition from neighboring countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, Indonesia is experiencing other problems. The country is still facing the threat of contagious diseases, like avian influenza; a pollution-haze problem; impact of natural disasters; security threats and the perceived lack of safety of the country’s air-sea transportation. These are some of the factors behind a decline in the number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia.

Indonesia has splendid tourist destinations scattered all over the archipelago that can be easily promoted in other countries. However, tourists are also looking for quality tourist-related services and facilities such as transportation, hotels and food.

Many questions can be raised about Indonesian tourism: Are the accommodations offered to tourists up to standard? Are tourists convinced of the safety of Indonesia’s air and sea transportation amid reports of major accidents in the transportation sector? Are effective promotional campaigns being carried out abroad?

It would do a great deal of good for Indonesia to once again have a successful travel and tourism industry, which at one time was second only to oil and gas as a source of national revenue. It is still possible for Indonesia to develop a tourism sector that can become one of the country’s economic engines and help alleviate poverty in rural areas? In order for this to happen, the tourism sector must be managed properly.

This year, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia is expected to rise to six million, despite widespread pessimism in the light of Indonesia’s tourism woes. In 2006, foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia dropped by 2,61 percent to 4,87 million, from five million in 2005.

These figures pale in comparison with those of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Last year, Thailand had about 15 million foreign arrivals, Malaysia 17 million and Singapore 12 million. These three countries have been very proactive in promoting their tourist destinations in the European and American markets.

Since tourism is everybody’s business and is a perennial activity, the government and all tourism stakeholders need to find ways of transforming problems and challenges into opportunities for development through creativity and innovation.

Indonesian foreign missions abroad, especially the embassies and consulates, have been vigorously promoting Indonesia’s tourist destinations and are making a substantial contribution. Therefore, tourism-related agencies in Indonesia need to establish cooperation and partnership with Indonesian foreign missions overseas.

The government recently announced that it will soon open (and, in some cases, re-open) a number of Indonesian tourism promotion offices abroad. This will be positive for the development of Indonesian tourism, especially when combined with the offer of the visa-on-arrival facility to tourists.

However, the opening of new offices abroad and the granting of special visa facilities to foreign nationals will not guarantee an increase in tourist arrivals for Indonesia. Good service and facilities and better infrastructure is also required. Above all, tourists who visit Indonesia need to feel safe and have confidence in the mode of transportation they are taking while enjoying the tourist attractions of the country.

The writer is working for the ministry of foreign affairs. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at basnur2002@yahoo.co.uk.

Al Busyra Basnur, Jakarta

Add comment May 16th, 2007