Bali among top five Asian destinations: Report

Bali among top five Asian destinations: Report

Bali is back as one of the top five favourite destinations for
Asia-Pacific travellers, less than two years after a terrorist
attack killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island, a
report received here Tuesday showed.

Bangkok remained the top choice, followed by Hong Kong,
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, with Bali in fifth place, according
to an analysis by Singapore-based ZUJI, a leading online travel
booking company in the region.

London, Jakarta, Taipei and Manila were also among the 10 most
visited cities, said the report, which covered the June quarter.
"Bali is back," it said, noting the island, famed for its surf,
beaches and local culture, was number 13 in its previous report
in the March quarter.

Massive car bombs exploded outside two nightclubs in Bali's
entertainment district on October 12, 2002, killing 164 foreign
holidaymakers and 38 Indonesians, and devastating the island's
tourist industry.

Investigations later showed the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI) extremist network staged the Bali attacks to
avenge perceived Western oppression of Muslims worldwide.
ZUJI's report also showed a rising number of travellers are using
their credit cards to pay for their online travel bookings, as
concerns about Internet security eased.

In the June quarter, 96 percent of transactions with the
company were paid with credit cards, up from 92 percent in the
first quarter.

ZUJI, a joint venture between 15 leading Asia Pacific airlines
and the US-based Internet travel site Travelocity, has one
million registered members. It has Internet travel sites in
Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.

The report also said electronic tickets, or e-tickets, were
becoming more popular in the region.

Nearly a quarter of all international air tickets issued
during the June quarter were e-tickets, up from 15 percent in the
previous quarter.

There was also a growing trend towards spur-of-the-moment
travel and shorter trips. In the June quarter, 67 percent of
flights booked were for trips of up to seven days.

High-income households and low-income earners were the ones
more likely to shopping for travel online, the report said.

"The lower income household representatives are very likely to
be students and younger people, who although on lower budgets,
have a propensity to Internet savviness and travel," it said.

The report was based on an online survey with 8,200
respondents carried out in Singapore, Kong Kong, Australia and
Taiwan and website usage and ZUJI's online travel database. --AFP

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AFP

GetAFP 2.10 -- AUG 24, 2004 17:11:31