Yogyakarta Tourism Suffering: Yogyakarta, Central Java

It appears that the Governor of Yogyakarta, Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, considers the series of disasters in the recent past have greatly affected tourism in the cultural city.

This may be so, but, Yogyakarta’s tourism decline, in my view, started following the 97’-’98 Asian Economic Crisis. Of course disasters on nearby islands also had a dramatic affect on tourism in Java as tourists feared about travelling other islands other than Bali. It is true that a series of natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cold lava streams, whirlwinds and the recent crash of a Garuda Indonesia airplane has crippled Yogyakarta`s tourism.

Yoyakarta has at least 109 tourist attractions, namely 21 ancient temples, 14 beaches, 12 cultural tourism sites, 14 spots of religious interest, 36 museums, 8 natural tourism destinations and four flora and fauna tourist objects.

In May 2006, a strong earthquake hit Yogyakarta and parts of Central Java killing around 5,000 people, and recently, a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 jetliner flying from Jakarta to Yogyakarta with 133 passengers and seven crew members on board, overshot the runway and burst into flames at Yogyakarta`s Adisutjipto airport.

Yogyakarta is without a doubt the cultural heart of Indonesia and well worth visiting. It’s reasonably cheap to fly from Bali for a few days and there is an excellent array of losmens, hotels of all stars and fantastic restorans and warungs to choose from.