It's Bali, it's New Year, but beaches deserted
It's Bali, it's New Year, but beaches deserted
It's Bali, it's Christmas, but beaches deserted Achmad Sukarsono Reuters Bali
It should be the height of the season in Bali.
In past years, tourists from around the world besieged the holiday island at Christmas and New Year to surf, party or laze beside the pool.
Not this year.
At a five-star resort normally packed during Christmas, few people were sunbathing, no one was cooling off in the luxurious pool and the golf course was empty.
"It has been like this since the bombings. The rich are afraid of death so they just choose to go to other places," said a staff member at one of Bali's top hotels.
At least 190 people, about half of them Australian tourists, died in the Oct. 12 Kuta nightclub bombings.
A year ago, those nightclubs were packed with revelers. This year, the site of the blasts is a memorial to the dead and is among the most visited places in Bali by tourists and Balinese.
Near the blast site, T-shirts on sale read "F**k Terrorist". It is a message that sums up the anger Balinese feel towards the perpetrators of bomb attacks that largely destroyed Bali's vital tourism industry, threatening livelihoods and blackening the island's image as the perfect holiday paradise.
"In November, we had only 15 percent (occupancy rate) throughout Bali," said I Gde Pitana, head of the Bali Tourism Authority.
"In the second week of December, we are usually fully booked, but now, in certain (popular) areas like Kuta, it is around 70 percent and in the other parts of the island it is still below 20 percent."
Pitana is optimistic Bali would rebound six months after the tragedy, arguing massive media coverage of the incident had been a boon in terms of free advertising for the island.
"The tragedy has put Bali on a high position. Nobody blames Bali. And the progress achieved by the police is incredible," he said referring to the arrests of a number of key suspects.
But while few people blame Bali for the tragedy, that view has yet to bring back tourists haunted by fear of more attacks.
Foreign tourist arrivals reached their lowest ever in November since records began in 1997. In Novermber, there were only 31,000 tourists, compared with the pre-blast figure of about 100,000 tourists per month.
Ernst Jenni, 63, an agricultural engineer from Switzerland, said he and his wife felt no threat during their trip to Bali, their first.
"It's a pity all these very nice facilities are not being utilized. It's lovely. The locals are friendly. Much more people should take the chance," he said, after he and his wife took a swim at the upmarket Nusa Dua resort strip southeast of Kuta.
The couple were the only visible Western tourists on the beach that is normally filled with tourists in December.
Siti Hidayat, a 37-year-old Chinese-Indonesian garment executive from Jakarta also said she felt safe.
"Things can happen anywhere, anytime. I even can bring children," she said, tending to her toddlers on the largely deserted Kuta beach.
In Australia, a group of young tourists was also undeterred about visiting Bali.
"I think it's safe to go there. I think the chances of it happening twice are very remote," said a South African couple holidaying in Australia.
Three young, female British backpackers, who were going to Malaysia after Australia, said they would be happy to visit Bali. "We'd still go there. It's probably the safest place to go right now," said one of the group.
While much of Australia remains traumatized by the attacks on a place the nation regards as its own, an increasing number of Australians are showing interest in returning after an initial blitz of mass cancellations directly after the bombings.
The Flight Centre travel agency firm said Australians were returning because they had a close affinity to the resort island to their north.
"We're coming into the peak holiday season and seats (to Bali) are quite tough to get," said Haydn Long, an agency spokesman.
"What's driving the push back to Bali is that a lot of people have a very close affinity to the place.
"They've traveled there frequently before, they have a love for the destination and the people, and want to see it get back on its feet again," Long said.
Sean Morrison, a senior travel adviser for STA, which specializes in the youth market, shared that view.
"It's still actually hard to get to Bali over Christmas. I think people who were always going to Bali are still going back there, the hardcore types, the people who have gone there every Christmas," he told Reuters.
Whether that renewed interest translates to a sustained rebound in Bali's fortunes in the coming months is unclear. In the meantime, ordinary Balinese are suffering.
Taxi driver I Wayan Sinta, 62, said he had never seen so few tourists since he started driving holidaymakers 30 years ago.
"In one month now, I only can get two decent trips. Usually, I can get some everyday. I don't know how can survive. I have debts here and there now."
In a row of souvenir shops in Jimbaran Bay, where five-star chains like the Ritz-Carlton, Inter-Continental and Four Seasons have resorts, shopkeepers were either playing cards or cutting vegetables.
"Nobody comes here anymore, let alone buy anything, especially because local tourists don't go to this area," said Ni Luh Nanik as he made ritual offerings from young coconut leaves.
At a wood carving workshop in the central Bali artists' village of Ubud, owner I Made Budiarsa said most of his 75 craftsmen often sleep around huge chunks of log during working hours.
"Usually we get heaps of orders, but now, after carvings are done, no order comes in. So we don't know what to do. If you make something now, the risk is we can never sell it," he said, adding business was at its worst since the shop opened 20 years ago.