Bali named Asia's favorite holiday destination
Bali named Asia's favorite holiday destination
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Amid slumping tourism following the bomb explosions in Bali
and the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Bali Island was again
named as one of the most favorite holiday destinations in Asia by
Time magazine.
A media release from Singapore Airlines based on a survey of
6,000 Time readers said Bali was chosen as the second most
favorite holiday destination.
Head of Bali Tourism Service I Gede Pitana received the award,
representing the Indonesian government, in Singapore on Oct. 28.
The award was Bali's second.
Bali received the award for the first time last year, only
several days after the bombing in famous Kuta, killing around 200
travelers, mostly western tourists.
Pitana was confident tourism activities in Bali will be fully
recovered by the end of this year. He added that the award
evidently shows that Bali was still on top of the list of the
most favorite tourist destinations in the world.
Tourism is the main economic driver for Bali which absorbed 38
percent of employment in 2000, according to the Singapore
Airlines press release.
Before the tragedy, Bali was visited by 50,000 to 70,000
foreign tourists every week.
Since 1998, the number of tourists visiting Bali has been
relatively stable.
The average length of stay for foreign tourists in Bali was 12
days, way above Indonesia's domestic tourists average of 4.8
days, with tourists spending daily between US$125 to $150.
"Travel advisory against Indonesia which was issued by many
countries had lowered the number of tourist arrivals in Bali,"
Pitana said.
Three months following the bombing on Oct. 12, 2002, daily
arrivals only averaged 1,000 and earlier this year was slightly
up to 2,000.
Minister of Culture and Tourism I Gede Ardika said arrivals in
Bali has slowly reached the normal level of 5,000 tourists a day.
Pitana added that in June, some 81,000 people visited the
island. The number was up the next month to 103,000.
In order to boost tourism in Bali and Indonesia, an action
plan had been launched by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
including boosting tourist promotion activities in main markets
such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.