Bali greets 3,000 foreign tourists on 'Happy Day'

By Devi M. Asmarani

DENPASAR (JP): The famous tourist destination of Bali greeted at least 3,000 international visitors who were entitled to free hotel rooms, free meals, free tours and, for some, free domestic flight tickets on the nation's tourist "Happy Day", which fell yesterday.

Tourists from Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Europe, who began to arrive at the island's Ngurah Rai airport from early in the morning, discovered they were in luck and in for some freebies.

Those coming into the country from abroad yesterday were entitled to free rooms and meals at some of the island's hotels yesterday and free tours to several destinations today.

Passengers of the national carrier Garuda were also entitled to an additional free one-way or round-trip ticket to any domestic destination, effective for seven days only.

Most of the 1,314 international passengers who began arriving on Garuda flights from 11 a.m. onwards received their free-flight vouchers.

"Great," an elderly couple exclaimed when they received the blue envelopes bearing the "Happy Day" sign with the vouchers inside.

"It's like being on our honeymoon again," the woman said.

Travel agent Steve Bradley who had just arrived from Perth was delighted with the free tickets.

"It's a great idea," said Bradley, who is in the country for a two week vacation with his wife.

Happy Day is the first phase of the "Let's Go Indonesia" campaign designed to lure tourists back into the country.

The official welcoming ceremony began at 5 pm, when the Garuda flight from Tokyo in Japan arrived.

The mostly Japanese passengers were welcomed by Bali's top government officials, including Deputy Governor Ahim Abdul Rahim, Badung regent I Gusti Bagus Alit Putra, Regional Military Commander Adam Damiri and the provincial head of the tourism, arts and culture office, Luther Barung, as well as local hoteliers.

The officials hung lei round the passengers' necks then handed over the blue envelopes.

The passengers were then ushered out of the reception area to where a group of Balinese dancers were performing.

They looked slightly puzzled with the exorbitant hospitality, but this soon changed to delight when a Japanese tour leader explained what was going on.

The "Let's Go Indonesia" project leader Ningsih A. Chandra said the organizers chose to welcome Japanese passengers because Japan was one of Bali's main markets.

"Japan's travel advisory bulletin still has Bali at level one for security and we want to counter that notion because it is a market which we want more custom from," Ningsih said.

Ningsih said 90 percent of Bali's 57 hotels rated at three stars and above were participating in the program.

They included the Sheraton Nusa Indah, the Bali Hilton, the Aston Bali Resort and Spa, but excluded all of the exclusive Aman group's hotels, she said.

Meanwhile in the departure area, staff at Garuda's counter were also handing out discounted flight ticket vouchers to foreign tourists leaving the island.

The vouchers entitle holders to a 50 percent discount on their next domestic flights with Garuda, provided they fall within one year.

Queenslander Warner Brook, who often comes to Indonesia to surf, said he was going to use the voucher to buy a one-way ticket to Medan in North Sumatra when he returns to the country next month.

However, the event's organizers did not seem to get the message through to all of the passengers arriving in the country yesterday.

A Garuda passenger who arrived yesterday morning from Perth said she did not know about the promotion until after being told about it by a reporter.

Other Garuda passengers who were entitled to the vouchers did not even receive them.

"I guess they just missed me," said another passenger from Perth.

The General Manager of Sheraton Nusa Indah, Lothar R. Pehl, expressed his optimism that the program would succeed in luring back more tourists to the island which has seen visitor numbers decline in the aftermath of the May's riots.

"This will get us a certain amount of international attention," Pehl said.