Air reservation system hurting Bali

Rich Simons, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an astonishing case of one rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel, an obsolete airline reservation system in the country could cost Bali millions of dollars over the next two weeks alone.

Despite crisis-level hotel occupancy rates since Oct. 12 and calls from tourist associations and ministers to pull together to assist with recovery efforts, there could be a shortfall of at least 20,000 wealthy visitors who actually want to go to Bali during Christmas and New Year's.

These travelers come from the cities of Jakarta, Medan and Makassar and consist mainly of expatriates and middle class Indonesians.

While State Minister of Tourism and Culture I Gede Ardika has been working tirelessly in an effort to jump-start tourism -- even touring Europe and pleading with travel agents to book flights to Bali -- and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs urging governments to ease travel advisories, and the hotels, tour operators and some domestic air carriers offering huge discounts, the computer reservation system has failed, resulting in thousands of well-heeled holiday makers and their families most likely detouring to Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand instead of their first and favorite choice -- Bali.

There has been a big push to attract current residents of Indonesia, but only a portion will be able to get to Bali and spend money in the hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and pubs as a result of the flights snafu.

It is an outright debacle that the travel industry here is unable to accommodate them while the actual hotel occupancy rate remains at record lows.

The mathematical calculation is elementary. Tens of thousands of international tourists are staying away, hurting Bali economically but opening a rare opportunity for the expatriate community here.

The current expatriate population of Jakarta alone has recently been estimated at some 20,000. During normal years expatriates know that Bali is fully booked with international travelers, but this year is different.

Most expatriates who have remained here are obviously not afraid of the terrorists and with the excellent hotel promotions, Bali is more attractive than ever. The same goes for upper and middle class Indonesians.

Do the math. For example, if one or a combination of airlines added 6 wide-bodied planes into the mix for a just a short period in late December.

That would equal roughly 18,000 more seats (6 planes with over 300 seats x 10 days). If each of these passengers stayed 10 days and spent an average of $150 a day -- the average according to tourist association data -- that equals a whopping US$27 million extra dollars injected into the Bali economy in a matter of weeks, the equivalent in rupiah terms of some Rp 243 billion. That figure does not include airfares, so the airlines could turn a handsome profit as well.

The problem as explained to the The Jakarta Post by Mahendra Siregar, expert advisor at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, involved would-be passengers or travel agents making double, triple and even quadruple bookings for a single seat, thereby making the flights "seem" to be overbooked on the computer system.

While expatriates who are still here should be one of the targets for domestic tourism, it is currently easier for them to fly out of the country during December with their families than to get to Denpasar, even though they are being offered extremely attractive hotel rates.

Travel agents in Jakarta become utterly exasperated, in most cases, as soon as they hear the word Denpasar. Their colleagues in Bali are offering every deal possible and there is a huge demand from domestic travelers especially on the Jakarta-Denpasar route in December, but the flights are artificially overbooked and little is being done about it.

Merpati, Bouraq and the smaller airlines do not have the capacity to make much of a difference. Garuda has done many good things in this regard, but they could have done better if indeed their top priority was Bali's recovery. They are, admittedly, facing a fairly serious cash crunch, so they are limited in what they can do. According to a six-page report from Garuda's Corporate Communications Department made available to the Post, they have had to let go of three leased jumbo jets that were being used for international flights to Australia, Japan and Europe. They have also reduced some domestic routes, but added an extra flight per day from Surabaya to Denpasar. In addition, they have upgraded their aircraft to wide-bodied planes on their 6 to 7 daily flights from Jakarta to Denpasar.

Mahendra also added that Garuda was still in the process of trying to fix the reservation system, and that there was a good possibility of adding a few more daily flights for the peak season starting this week. In fact, he even optimistically stated that "every person who wants to go, will get on a flight ..."

The confusing reservation system is much like Jakarta's notorious traffic congestion. While there are many more vehicles on the roads, a huge portion of the problem could be solved through coordinated efforts to clear the roads of street vendors and cars parked illegally on the side of the roads blocking entire lanes of traffic.

The bottom line is that if people really want to go to Bali, the only option is to keep trying. If a traveler has the time and the endurance, to get on a waiting list (just ONE please, do not call 5 different agents and get your name booked 5 times or more), then go to the airport and push your case with whomever is willing to listen or can get you on to a flight.