Employment liberalization in Asean will be started in 2010. However human resource of Bali tourism is definitely not ready to face employment liberalization both in regional and international level. Out of 40,000 tourism workers, only 500 in executive level hold international certification.

Coordinator of Monitoring Commission on Certification Program of Tourism Professional Certification Institute (LSPP), I Gede Widjana exposed various problems behind slow execution of the certification program. Among those problems are lack of socialization and lack of response form both the employers and the employees themselves which tend to consider cortification as low priority.

Widjana stressed the imprtance of certification as a standard measure of knowledge, skill, and behavior of a worker, which in global marketplace should have internatinal recognition. “In many ocassons tourism industry feels that they are able to work in professional and therefore certification is no longer needed”, he said.

As one of Asean countries, Indonesia has signed Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) which requires standard certification acceptable in all Asean members, in this respect competence backed up by international qualification certificate is essential.

To improve implementation of certification program LSPP has established cooperation with tourism education institutes in Bali, where tutors of the institutes will serve as assessors. At the moment there are at least 120 assesors in Bali. “We are expecting more assessors especially in managerial level so it can be spreaded down within their department”, he said.

Meanwhile Chairman of Bali Tourism Board (BTB), Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, said that his organization has been continuously socialize professional certification in tourism industry through its 9 stakeholders. “Human resource development is one of three main focuses of BTB. In this context, BTB routinely conducts training programs including certification. We have engaged MoUs with related institutions”, he explained.

Ceritication applies to operators such as hotes, tour, guides, and event organizers, mediators such as travel agents, reservation outlets, management of tourism objects, as well as regulators.