Japanese still find Bali their paradise gained

By Hendra Lesmana

DENPASAR, Bali (ANTARA): Despite an ongoing crisis and a shocking riot recently, Bali remains one of the most popular tourist destinations for the Japanese.

Although the news about East Timor refugees and the Oct. 21 riot here were widely broadcast by the Japanese media, the number of travelers to Bali remained high.

The Japanese government did not issue any travel bans on its citizen wanting to go to Bali and other Indonesian islands.

Fumio Ito, president of PT Taurina Travel Jaya, said Bali was quite far away from East Timor. Everything is fine here. There is no reason for Japanese tourists to cancel their trip to Bali.

The Japanese government has allowed Japanese travel agents to continue operations in Indonesia.

PT Taurina Travel Jaya is a subsidiary of Japanese Air Lines (JAL) which overviews its ticket sales and tourism activities in Indonesia.

Shuichi Sakamoto, JAL's sales manager in Indonesia, said there is no travel boycott by Japan because Indonesia and Japan have close socioeconomic and political relations.

"Everyday, NHK broadcasts news on East Timor and other issues from Indonesia, but the Japanese still want to visit Bali," he said.

Sakamoto said Japanese and Indonesian travel agents must assure visitors on security matters. They should also attempt to create innovative and progressive tourist packages to lure international visitors to Bali and other Indonesian cities, especially during this transitional period.

Crisis

Before the crisis struck Indonesia two years ago, the number of Japanese tourists visiting Bali was very high. But, the number of tourists dropped significantly when the multidimensional crisis was made worse by a series of unrests and riots in several Indonesian provinces.

Daniel Surjadi, PT Taurina's managing director, said it was quite difficult to convince visitors and to sell tourist packages to other places outside of Bali.

He said that in August l999, about 20,000 passengers flew with JAL from Tokyo to Bali. "It is expected that the number of passengers will increase next month," he said.

The company, he said, has launched a special millennial package called Bali Sunrise 2000, dedicated to tourists who plan to spend New Year's Eve and watch the first sunrise of 2000 here.

"So far, we haven't had any plan to raise ticket prices for Tokyo-Jakarta routes. Maybe next year," he said.

New Year

He said that millennial programs in Bali attract not only local travel agents but large-scale overseas companies. He predicted flight schedules would be very tight and busy between Christmas and New Year.

JAL has plans to increase the number of flights plying Tokyo- Jakarta routes in the fourth week of December," he said.

Every week, JAL has 14 round-trip flights from Tokyo-Denpasar and Osaka-Jakarta-Denpasar.

From Indonesia, the Jakarta-Tokyo-Las Vegas route is very popular among Japanese and American visitors.

JAL has also launched the JAL Selection package from Jakarta to tourist cities around the world. He said 75 percent of JAL passengers usually land at Nugrah Rai airport in Denpasar for leisure, the rest go to Jakarta for business activities.

"We can draw a good picture of the prospects of tourism in Bali in the coming years," he said.

But, it is hoped that other tourist destinations outside Bali will be prepared and upgraded to provide more alternatives for international visitors.