Bali receives more tourists in first semester

Bali receives more tourists in first semester

The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The number of tourist arrivals in Bali has increased from 552,573 during the first semester of 2006 to 745,949 during the same period of this year, the Bali Tourism Office reported Thursday.

The office also said hotel occupancy rates had increased to an average of 57.70 percent with an average length of stay of 3.37 days. In 2006, the average hotel occupancy rate was 30.68 percent.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced Wednesday that tourism in Indonesia was picking up again, despite the recent travel warnings issued by the United States and Australia.

The number of tourists coming to Indonesia amounted to 2.14 million in the first semester of this year from only 1.91 million in the same period of last year.

This data was received with mixed feelings by Bali's tourism community.

Cokorda Oka Ardhana Sukawati or Cok Ace, the chairman of Bali's Hotels and Restaurants Association, said such indicators were encouraging given the fact that a number of countries had advised their citizens against visiting Bali and the European Union had banned all Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe, which had caused some European tourists to cancel planned visits to Bali.

"However, we really have to evaluate the quality of their visits to Bali," Cok Ace said.

Based on Central Bank data, foreign tourists stay for no more than six days on average.

Prior to the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, when the average length of stay of foreign tourists to Bali was 16-30 days, the tourism boom had driven much of Bali's economy.

The island also contributed more than 50 percent of the country's US$5.5 billion income from tourism and the industry provided job opportunities for 33 percent of the total workforce in Bali.

Bali, Cok Ace said, was currently facing cutting-edge competition from the neighboring countries of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. A number of attractive tourist destinations have also emerged in India, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Pacific Islands.

"To maintain steady tourist arrivals, Bali must be promoted continually in the international travel market as a favorite destination," he said.

The tourism industry has been working to change the image of the island to that of a peaceful destination using the "Shanti, Shanti, Shanti" slogan, which translates into "Peace, Peace, Peace".

But budgetary constraints and poor planning have hampered the growth of the island's tourism sector.

Following the bombings in 2005, the central government set up the Bali Recovery Fund to boost tourism on the island. The effectiveness of the fund has, however, been called into question by many parties.

Gde Nurjaya, the head of the Bali Tourism Office, said that Bali was now expanding its market to India, Middle Eastern countries, China, East Europe, Russia and Latin America.

"Most visitors to Bali come from Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Europe and South Korea, and countries in the Middle East have emerged as flourishing markets," Nurjaya said adding that the opening of Qatar Airways services plying Doha-Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar had brought tourists from the Middle East to Bali. Russian airlines are also slated to open direct routes to Denpasar.

Bali received 1.2 million foreign visitors last year. It is expected the number will increase given the positive data for the start of 2007.

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