Bali pleads for Australian tourists

Bali pleads for Australian tourists

PERTH, Australia (AFP): Tourist officials from the Indonesian island of Bali claimed Sunday Australians had nothing to fear on the holiday resort.

Jonathon Harris, spokesman for a group seeking to stimulate the Bali tourist trade, said although news from Timor had been negative, Australians had no reason to fear for their safety.

"If visitors have concerns about safety they have nothing to worry about as Bali remains unaffected by problems being experienced in other areas of Indonesia," Harris said.

"However, if people have chosen not to go to Bali because of some sort of political statement then it is sadly misguided because the impact is to take income away from the people who most need it at a time when it is most critical," Harris said.

Luther Barrung, regional director of tourism, art and culture in Bali, said Balinese did not blame Australians for the crisis in East Timor.

"The Balinese have made enormous efforts during these difficult times to ensure that Bali remains the safe and friendly holiday destination that it has always been," he said.

Some travel agents in Australia, the main market for Bali's key tourism industry, have diverted customers to holidays elsewhere.

"We're not boycotting Bali," Peter Hansen, Australian spokesman for leading travel agent Thomas Cook, said last week. "That's too harsh a word. If people want to go to Bali, we'll book people to Bali.

"(But) there are plenty of other alternatives to Bali," he added, saying the company's concerns were partly for safety reasons but also "partly from a moral perspective."

Meanwhile, the Bali Tourism Office said in Denpasar that Australian tourists visiting Bali dropped by about 20 percent to 234,780 in September from 287,733 in August.

The head of the office, I Gusti Agung Mega, said the drop was considered normal and was not the result of strained relations between the neighboring countries.

The September figure was much higher than the 17,000 Australian tourists who visited Bali in the same month last year.

Anti-Australian sentiment remains high in many of Indonesia's major cities, with continuing demonstrations against Australia's involvement in East Timor. (03)