Bali tourists arrivals soar in January

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Bali's tourism showed signs of extraordinary recovery in January, thanks largely to Asian neighbors, who displayed a huge amount of solidarity by sending most visitors to the nation's most famed resort island.

Bali attracted 60,838 international tourists, in which Japanese tourists led the pack to the "Island of the Gods" with 10,290 arrivals, according to Bali's immigration office.

It was followed by Taiwanese coming in at second place with 8,902 visitors and Singapore third with 5,115 visitors.

The head of the provincial immigration office, I Gede Widiartha, was quoted by Antara as saying that an extraordinary increase was seen in the number of tourists from Singapore, which was not included in the 10 largest group of foreign tourists traveling to Bali last year with an average of 2,000 visitors per month.

Widiartha said that the increase in tourists arrivals from Singapore was largely due to Singapore Airlines' efforts to promote Bali and to offer airfare discounts.

On Oct. 12 of last year, the whole world was rocked hard by the terrorist bombing of two packed nightclubs in Legian, Kuta, a famous beach resort on the island, killing more than 190 people.

Since then, Indonesia's tourism has suffered as Bali's image plummeted and many countries issued travel warnings against visiting Bali or any other Indonesian islands.

The total number of incoming tourists decreased by 2.41 percent to 4.09 million visitors in 2002.

Australian tourists, who normally make the most of Bali's surf and sun, came fourth with 4,963 arrivals in January of this year, down from second place during the same month last year.

Yanti Sukamdani, chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said on Friday that many Australians were still traumatized by the bomb attacks, which killed many Australians.

"Amid travel warnings issued by their government and the trauma caused by the bombings, the number of Australian arrivals is considerably good," she said.

Yanti particularly complimented neighboring countries, which strongly supported Indonesia's tourism.

"Asian tourists have shown a huge amount of solidarity with Bali as they ignored travel advisories issued by their governments," Yanti told The Jakarta Post