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Official and unofficial levies on hotels, restaurants and travel agencies are being blamed for potholing the road towards the Indonesian Government's target of 11 million visitors spending US$15 billion by 2005.

Tourism businesses are subjected to six kinds of taxes and charges. Four of these - income tax, value-added and luxury sales tax, property tax and stamp duties - are levied by the central government. Local taxes and local fees are further imposed on an industry which is being hard pressed to meet expectations.

Travel industry associations, including the Association of Indonesian Travel Agencies (ASITA), are currently compiling a list of official taxes and illegal levies, which they will present to the government.

Rianto Nurhadi, secretary-general of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, has claimed that illegal levies and multiple taxation account for up to 40 per cent of the operating costs of a star-rated hotel.

Tourism Minister Joop Ave has conceded that taxes come thick and fast on the hotel business. These can include levies for swimming pools, billboards, street lighting and value-added taxes for facilities such as fitness centres.

President Soeharto is encouraging the industry to list its complaints about illegal levies and other impediments to growth.

Ironically, the tax which is meant to support tourism in Indonesia - the two per cent 'promotion' tax - is not reaching the Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board, according to ITPB chairman Tanri Abeng.

Others in the tourism business are also drawing attention to shortcomings in Indonesia's tourism effort.

An international conference on tourism and heritage management in Yogyakarta recently heard that tourists were abandoning sea and sun in favour of culture and history. But Edi Sedyawati, director general at the Ministry of Education and Culture, has questioned Indonesia's readiness to cater for this emerging market.

She said that organisers of cultural festivals often lacked professionalism, and presented art or traditional performances to please tourists without paying attention to the authenticity of these events.

The tax grab is even ensnaring cultural performances. ASITA says that tour operators are regularly charged up to Rp200,000 by state airport operators for the right to present tourist greeting dances.

The quality of local guides and workers in the tourism industry is also under the microscope. The enormous growth of tourism to Indonesia has meant that hotels and tour operators struggle to keep their best employees - and often have trouble finding suitably trained staff replacements.

Halim Indrakusuma, president of leading travel agency Pacto, said the majority of local guides were still underqualified in their knowledge of history and culture and more training was needed.