Bali tourists arrivals soar in January

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