Holiday gives a boost to Bali's tourism sector

Leony Aurora and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar

With Friday the last work day before the Idul Fitri holiday on Sunday, many Indonesians are heading to Bali for the following week-long break.

Deputy chairwoman of the Indonesian Tourism Society Meity Robot said that hotels and flights to the island, a favorite destination for domestic tourists, were almost fully booked.

"The tourists will stay between Nov. 14 and Nov. 21," said Meity on Friday.

Grand Hyatt Bali Hotel public relations officer Renata Hutasoit said that all 653 rooms in the hotel were fully booked from Nov. 14 to Nov. 21.

"However, some guests are still having problems with flights from Jakarta," she said.

A high occupancy rate is also expected at the Bali International Resort in Jimbaran. Spokeswoman Keke Hidayat said that the five-star hotel is fully booked from Nov. 13 until Nov. 18. But the occupancy rate on the following day may be about 80 percent.

In recent years the central government has imposed an extended holiday policy by rearranging public holidays to enable as many long weekends as possible. The government intends to increase higher domestic consumption, which has been the main drive of the country's economic growth for the last several years.

The measure was also deemed necessary to promote tourism, which took severe blows with the Bali bombing in 2002, the Marriott blast in the capital in 2003, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The most recent bombing incident in Kuningan, Central Jakarta, on Sept. 9, however, has proved to have little effect on the tourist industry.

"It affected hotels only in Jakarta for about two weeks," said Yanti Sukamdani Hardjoprakoso, chairwoman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI).

She said that the occupancy rate in Bali reached between 50 percent and 60 percent in the low season and about 70 percent in high season. "The condition in Bali is improving."

Latest data from the province's tourism agency shows that almost 1.1 million foreign visitors have come to the island in the first nine months of this year. The figure is a 52.45 percent increase from last year's figure of about 717,000 tourists.

Although bouncing back, the situation in Bali is far from its glorious days before the bomb tragedy, especially after the implementation of a US$25 visa-on-arrival policy for a 30-day stay in February.

The visa policy restricts visa-free entry to tourists from 21 countries, down from the previous list of 60 countries.

A survey conducted of 10,000 foreign tourists in Bali in 2004 showed that more than 50 percent would not return to the island due to the new policy. The majority also said that the procedure was time consuming.

For Indonesia in general, and Bali in particular, tourism has become a major foreign exchange earner and economic backbone.

The government has targeted foreign exchange revenue of $5.2 billion this year, mostly expected from foreign tourist arrivals, up from the $4.5 billion booked in the previous year.

The 2004 target was based on the assumption that 5.1 million foreign travelers would visit the country throughout the year. Until September, some 3.41 million foreign visitors have passed through 13 entry gates in Indonesia, up 28 percent of the same period last year.

"More foreigners will come in December for their school holidays," said Meity.