Bali bombings reverberate throughout travel industry

Bali bombings reverberate throughout travel industry

Brad Foss, Associated Press, New York

With their honeymoon less than a week away, Brendan Bligh and
Karen Daddona have only one thing to think about: where in the
world to go.

The couple, who will be married Saturday in Bordentown, New
Jersey, had a trip to Bali planned for months. But since the
weekend bombings that killed more than 180 people on the
Indonesian island, the couple has been frantically trying to book
a new trip.

"We have to decide pretty soon," Bligh, 26, said Monday. "A
lot of people who were going to Bali are now diverting to places
like Thailand," where his travel agent fears the best
accommodations could become scarce as a result.

The Bali bombings are causing aftershocks throughout the
struggling travel industry, leading travelers and tour operators
to temporarily cancel trips there and forcing travel agents to
find suitable alternatives in a pinch.

The violence is likely to strengthen travelers' desire to stay
closer to home, a sentiment that gained force after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.

Hard-core surfers who travel to Bali during hurricane season
in search of massive waves, however, can still be counted on to
venture to Bali, said John Dekker, manager of the Carlson
Wagonlit travel agency in Huntington Beach, California.

"These are people who look off the edge of the cliff anyway,
so they're not going to let something like this stop them,"
Dekker said. Dekker has five clients currently on a surfing trip
in Bali and they do not plan to cut their travels short.

But for the most part, travel agents around the globe were
canceling upcoming trips to the Indonesian resort.

Club Med suspended travel to its Bali "village" for a week.
The Florida-based company is offering to send customers to a
different resort through Oct. 20, or will allow them to rebook
their trip for sometime in the future.

For the 600 Club Med vacationers already in Bali, "all the
excursions have been canceled", a spokeswoman said.

All British tour operators, meanwhile, have canceled tours to
Bali over the next few days and are offering penalty-free
cancellations and alternative tours to affected clients.
Britain's Foreign Office is warning Britons not to go to Bali at
all and to avoid Indonesia except on essential business.

Thom Nulty, president of Navigant International, a corporate
travel agency, said he did not expect any significant decline in
business trips to Indonesia. "Because of the economy, business
travel has already been cut down to essential travel," Nulty
said.

The Association of British Travel Agents said leisure tourists
are generally undeterred in the long run by the threat of
terrorism. Despite the 1997 attack in Luxor, Egypt, the threat
posed by the PKK in Turkey and the Basque separatist group Eta in
Spain, tourists still traveled to those countries in large
numbers, said Keith Betton, the association's head of corporate
affairs.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation and has
gotten a reputation as a dangerous place for travelers in recent
years because of the rise of radical Islam there and around the
world. Bali, however, is mostly Hindu and had always been
considered relatively safe. That peaceful image has certainly
been tarnished, although travel agents were hopeful it wouldn't
ruin the island's all-important tourism industry.

"It could be a couple of years before the island recovers. But
it will recover," Betton said. "I don't think people are going to
be put off visiting Muslim countries."

Magnus Ranstorp, terrorism expert at St. Andrews University's
Center for Terrorism and Political Violence, disagreed.

"There will be an immediate effect in terms of reluctance to
travel. It is not unusual to hit tourist targets, but this is on
a completely different scale," he said.

Bligh and Daddona say if Thailand doesn't work out as a
honeymoon spot, they will consider Bora Bora, Mauritius or
Hawaii, but Bali is definitely off the list.

"The likelihood of something happening again in Bali may be
pretty small," Bligh said, "but if it does, it's a pretty big
risk to take."