Bali hosted more tourists in first semester

Denpasar, Indonesia | August 05, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Following the bombings in 2005, the central government set up the Bali Recovery Fund to boost tourism on the island. 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. D-8 Secretariat express its firm confidence that the expectation will be met, given the serious effort and collaboration of the relevant authorities in this sectors. Tourism of D-8 countries are sector that now well growing for private sector business. "We are going to have a detailed discussion further in D-8 expert meeting in August in West Azarbaijan, a province of Iran, on Eco-tourism," Dr. Dipo Alam, the Secretary General of D-8, said on Friday.

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