Tourist industry enjoys rebound

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, September 12, 2007

The island's tourist industry enjoyed a strong first semester of 2007, with a sizable increase in foreign tourist arrivals from the same period last year.

"I believe that this is the long-awaited good news for the tourism industry here. The growth signifies that the industry is on the right track toward full recovery," Bali Tourism Agency (BTA) head Gde Nurjaya said.

According to BTA data, a total of 910,567 foreign tourists visited the island from January to July this year. This was a 34.99 percent increase from the 674,561 foreign tourist arrivals in the corresponding period of 2006.

"Moreover, the increase took place in each and every month of this semester. It ranges from 20.46 percent to 61.07 percent. The highest increase took place in February," he said.

This trend is expected to continue, with the number of foreign tourist arrivals also rising in August. A total of 165,738 foreign visitors arrived in Bali in August, up 40.33 percent from August 2006.

If this trend continues, Nurjaya stressed, the island will meet its 2007 target of 1.4 millions visitors ahead of schedule.

"By August, more than 1.1 millions visitors had visited the island so we are quite optimistic that we will meet and, probably, surpass the target," he said.

The increase in foreign tourist arrivals has boosted the average occupancy rate at major hotels.

According to BTA data, occupancy rates have steadily climbed since February.

In February the average occupancy rate was 41.12 percent, in March it rose slightly to 43.59 percent and in April it was 48.82 percent. The rate went up to 52.69 percent in May and was at 55 percent in June.

"By July, the occupancy rate had surpassed 60 percent and in August it was well above 70 percent," he said.

Nurjaya believes the first semester tourist numbers indicate people are no longer being put off travel to the island by different threats.

"It seems that people eventually will realize that terrorist attacks, epidemics or natural disasters can take place in any part of the world," he said.

The island has been hit twice by terrorist attacks. In 2002, two powerful bombs exploded in Kuta, killing 202 people, most foreign tourists. In 2005, 20 people were killed in bombings.

The attacks almost destroyed the tourist industry, the island's economic backbone. In the aftermath of the first bombing, the island recorded for the first time in its history a decrease in foreign visitor arrivals, which were down about 23 percent in 2003.

Another decrease took place in 2006 following the second bombings. This time, however, the numbers were only off 9.1 percent.

"The main lesson we get is that the way the affected people respond to a tragedy will influence greatly the recovery of the tourism industry," Nurjaya said.

"Bali and its people have always responded in a peaceful and decent manner. There haven't been any riots, mob justice or any display of offensive and violent vendettas following the terrorist attacks. That's the reason why Bali was able to recover in a relatively short time. That's the main reason why the foreign visitors began trickling back to Bali," he said.

Through July 2007, Japanese, Australians, Taiwanese, South Koreans and Malaysians led the foreign tourist arrivals.

"We are currently devising a more comprehensive program to attract visitors from China and Russia. The global tourism market is very huge and has so much untapped potential. We need to look beyond those top five," Nurjaya said.

China is seen as a particularly attractive market. The number of Chinese visitors to Bali in 2006 rose 137.4 percent from 2005.

"But the numbers, around 40,000 visitors, are still minuscule compared to the gigantic potential of the Chinese tourism market," he said.