Bali tourism devastated by restaurant bombings

Bali tourism devastated by restaurant bombings

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The October bombings in Bali have proved to be a severe blow to
Indonesia's tourism sector, with the number of foreign visitors
dropping by nearly 31 percent to 267,800 during the month, the
Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Thursday.

According to the agency's latest tourism statistics, the
number of overseas tourists to the popular resort island alone
nearly halved to 86,800 visitors after rising by 2.79 percent to
168,200 in September.

"The bombing tragedy in Bali has seriously affected the number
of foreign tourists coming into the country, apart from the fact
that October is usually a low season for the tourism sector as
well," BPS chief Choiril Maksum said.

Besides Indonesia's main tourist destination of Bali, all
other destination cities in the country also saw declines in
overseas travellers, including the capital Jakarta and Batam.

Only North Sulawesi's Manado managed to show a 6.67 percent
rise in its foreign tourist arrivals, as 1,743 travellers were
still willing to visit the province's popular offshore snorkeling
attraction at Bunaken island.

The impacts on Indonesia's tourism sector from the avian flu
outbreak here have yet to be seen, said to the report.

The total number of foreign tourists entering through the
country's 13 main entry points as of October totaled 3,501,077 --
down by 7.76 percent from 3,795,664 during the same period last
year.

The government hoped to attract six million foreign visitors
this year, taking in US$6 billion in revenues in the process.
Last year, 5.3 million foreign tourists traveled to the
archipelago, generating some US$5.3 billion in revenues.

Indonesia's tourism sector has been experiencing hard times
since the Bali terrorist bombings of 2002, and similar bombings
of the JW Marriott Hotel and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in
the following years, all of which have served to scare of
potential visitors.

The outbreaks of SARS and avian flu in the region at the same
time, as well as the recent Asian tsunami disaster late last
year, have only made things worse. And if all that was not enough,
three bombs rocked Bali's two main tourist sites -- Jimbaran and
Kuta -- in October, bringing back the horrific memories of the
2002 tragedy.

The latest slump in the number of foreign tourists could spell
more bad news for the economy, with chief economics minister
Aburizal Bakrie previously saying that Indonesia's gross domestic
product (GDP) could drop by between 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent
if the October bombings resulted in a 50 percent decrease in
tourist arrivals in Bali and other destinations throughout the
country up until the end of the year.

Tourism contributes some 6 percent of GDP and employs up to 8
percent of the total workforce, according to BPS data.

In a similar downward trend, the average length of stay of
foreign tourists in star-rated hotels in 10 main tourist
destinations in the country dropped to 2.03 days in September as
compared to 2.15 days the previous month.