Jakarta left with 'no time' to prepare for tourism drive

Jakarta was left with "very little time" to prepare for Visit Indonesia Year 2008, resulting in few events being organized in the capital to support the national tourism drive, a city official said.

"The central government informed us quite late about the campaign," city tourism agency head Yusuf Effendi Pohan said Thursday at City Hall.

However, he refused to admit the city was unprepared for the campaign, which was launched on Dec. 26, 2007.

Yusuf said events in Jakarta that were expected to support the national campaign included the annual Jakarta Great Sale in June and international events such as the Java Jazz Festival in March and the JakJazz jazz festival in November.

He said several new events would also be launched in the city in 2008, including a kite festival and Jakarta Fashion Week.

The city's official tourism website, www.jakarta-tourism.go.id, fails to mention in any detail Visit Indonesia Year 2008.

Only four events to be held this year can be found on the website: Trend Furniture 2008, the International Education Expo, Trend Property 2008 and the International Renewable Energy Conference.

Remarkably, the upcoming Java Jazz Festival, to be held from March 7-9, is not mentioned. Since its inaugural year in 2005, the event has attracted an average of 100,000 domestic and international visitors each year.

Has BA Been Flying Empty Planes Across the Atlantic to Save Its Slots?

British Airways has been accused of flying empty widebodies across the Atlantic in a bid to keep its landing slots at London airports. This seems a bit odd (and iah-phx doesn't buy it at all) that they would fly empty planes from London to Houston (and other cities) considering the huge amount of fuel that would be used on the flight (the British articles about this all talk about the CO2 emissions from an empty plane). For its part, BA says it has flown a handful of these so-called ghost flights because it needed to reposition crew (that doesn't really make much sense either) and that no crews were available to staff these flights. In short, I don't know what the hell is going on over there.

But what's interesting is how the British press is outraged from an environmental standpoint. While people in the US are still arguing about whether there's any global warming at all, Europe has woven the issue into how it looks at every aspect of business.

Saudi Prince Buys Himself an A380

Airbus announced the identity of the first person to purchase his own A380 is Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, the world's 13th richest man. Plans for the airplane, which features 6,400 square feet of interior space, are still being finalized, but they will likely include several bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, showers, gym, and an area for "courtiers" (I don't know). The aircraft will carry about 50 people.