Yusril Ihza Mahendra: Belitung Needs Additional Number Of Flights

JAKARTA - A constitutional law expert as well as a national political figure, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, assessed that Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands Province, needed an additional number of flights, to support progress with the nickname "The Laskar Pelangi Country".

"According to my mind, Belitung needs an additional number of flights, even if necessary from abroad directly," he said in Tanjung Pandan, quoted from Antara, Saturday, February 3.

According to him, if there are only five flights a day, it will make tourists limited and difficult to access Belitung for travel.

"The difficulty of Belitung in tourism is the transportation side and the one thing that is relied on is only from Jakarta," he said.

In addition, said Yusril, if the number of flights only five times a day from Jakarta is certain to have an impact on occupancy or the level of room occupancy in the area.

"Surely the occupancy of hotels in Belitung will be below 30 percent, then they will collapse and the impact will be felt like restaurants and so on," he said.

Therefore, Yusril encouraged local governments to lobby the central government to increase the number of flights not only domestically but also abroad.

"My recommendation is how the local government lobbies the central government so that international routes (flights) not only from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur but directly from Dubai to Belitung," he said.

He said Dubai had for now defeated Singapore as a transiting ground for world tourists.

"For example, if the UAE is approved to be given a concession to manage one of the islands in Belitung, for example, if he wants to build a palace there, go ahead, so that later flights will be opened directly to Belitung, then in a few years Belitung tourism will be 'booming'," he said.