Pedicabs are part of the attraction for visitors to the old royal Javanese city. However their lack of English language skills and especially their cheating attitude can be detrimental to the city image. A situation that the municipal administration tries now to address.
YOGYAKARTA- Fun to go around Yogyakarta a pedicab? Definitely but be aware. In Yogyakarta, one of Indonesia’s most popular tourist place, foreign visitors need to be clever and skilled to negotiate the price and then to know where to go exactly to the area they want to visit. Most pedicabs will not hesitate to make long ways just to request more money from travellers. Well, part of the tourist game? Probably, but also a hassle for the tourist if he suddenly realizes that it has been cheated on both price and the run…
Yogyakarta city administration is now paying attention to the problem and hosted in June a special training for the operators of the three-wheeled, leg-powered buggies, titled “Motivation, Personality and Skill for Pedicab Drivers”. “It will help boosting tourism in general and the city appeal. This is part of the city’s efforts to gear up for tourist season from June to September”, explained Yulia Rustiyaningsih, Head of Yogyakarta’s Office of Culture and Tourism to the e-news magazine Khabar Southeast Asia.
Some 300 pedicab drivers attended the training which gave lessons of basic English but also lessons how to behave properly with foreign visitors. “No more rude attitude,” explained a pedicab driver to Khabar Southeast Asia. Yogyakarta enjoys so far an excellent tourism year with booming numbers of domestic and international travellers. Over 1.2 million travellers are expected to have visited the city by the end of the year with increasing troubles to find a hotel in town during the peak season from June to September.
(Source: Khabar Southeast Asia)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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