Lombok picking up the pieces

Tourists are slowly coming back as the island takes baby steps to reel them in after the earthquake.

JAKARTA:

Douglas was aware of the series of earthquakes that struck Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, six months ago when he decided to visit the island during his six-week holiday.

As a native of California in the United States, the 30-year-old electronic salesperson is no stranger to tremors.

“In terms of fear of not wanting to come here, where we live we have earthquakes very regularly, but we have different building structures so when an earthquake happens, less damage is done,” Douglas said while sitting by the beach on Gili Trawangan, a small island off the coast of Lombok.

Gili Trawangan, a popular tourist spot along with its neighbouring islands of Gili Meno and Gili Air, was left devastated after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Lombok on Aug 5, with the majority of the buildings on the island destroyed.

During a visit to the island recently, construction workers were busy rebuilding the resorts. Small piles of debris left from the earthquake were still visible in the corners of the island.

The island seemed vacant. Beachside cafes, bicycle rentals and scuba diving spots were mostly deserted as their owners looked around, hoping to attract the few passersby.

“This place is much nicer than everywhere else (similar we have visited),” Rebecca, Douglas’ girlfriend saidd. “We are already talking about coming back here and we’re not even finished with this trip.”

The number of tourists in Lombok plummeted following the earthquake. The Tourism Ministry reported that between September and December 2018, the figure dropped by a whopping 66% compared to the same period the year before.

“The foreign tourists who come here say they are not afraid of earthquakes as much as they are of terrorists, but we assume domestic tourists are still frightened by the disaster,” said Emanuel Prasodjo, general manager for Aston Sunset Beach in Gili Trawangan.

Tourism Ministry assistant for international marketing Nia Niscaya said the government had rolled out a lot of measures to promote Lombok and other destinations in Indonesia following the series of disasters — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network