Longer holiday boosts hotel occupancy in Bali

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After posting a record-low occupancy rate in October, hotel occupancy in Bali has apparently started to pick up again as one industry player claimed that the latest figure was 40 percent for the first week of December, thanks largely to a long-holiday season.

Chairperson of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Yanti Sukamdani said since the holiday season would last until after the New Year's celebration, there was still a good chance for the occupancy rate to further go up.

"Hotel bookings have been on the rise since early this month, and it tends to keep rising now that plenty of hotels have been fully-booked ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations," Yanti told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

However, visitors and local businesspeople on the island estimated that the occupancy rates were still extremely low.

Nonetheless, Yanti remained optimistic that the hotel occupancy rate in the famous resort island would average around 60 percent for all of December.

The figures should provide a glimmer of hope that the Bali tourism industry, hard hit by the deadly terrorists attacks on Oct. 12, is on track toward recovery.

Prior to the blasts, Bali's hotel occupancy rates averaged more than 70 percent.

The terror attacks on the island, which killed more than 200, shattered the island's long-standing image as a safe haven for travelers across the world.

Mass cancellations of hotel bookings and travel tours were on the increase, sending the island's hotel occupancy rate to its worst levels in decades.

In just two weeks after the tragedy, the occupancy rate on the island dropped to single digits.

It reached 5 percent by the end of October.

This had initially signaled that tourism in the tropical paradise was on the brink of collapse, which would be quite a blow to the country's overall economy as Bali has been Indonesia's main gate for foreign tourists.

Tourism has been one of the main non-oil-and-gas foreign exchange earners for the country, second only to the textile and garment industry.

The island lures around 1.5 million foreign tourists annually.

Last year, the tourism in Bali, with around 1,400 hotels and almost 750 restaurants, generated some US$1.4 billion or more than 25 percent of the nation's foreign exchange revenue from the industry, which totaled $5.4 billion.

However, now that the occupancy rate was rapidly increasing, Yanti was hopeful that the island would soon be able to bounce back from its slump.

She attributed the current rise partly to the government policy which allows longer holidays for locals throughout this month.

"That has definitely helped Indonesian residents to have a longer time off and better arrange their vacation plans," Yanti added.

Just a few weeks ago, in an attempt to encourage domestic tourism, especially to Bali, the government decreed a longer period of office holidays for Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year celebrations -- all occurring in December.

This ruling applies also for banks, private offices and other business institutions.

And the plan seems to be fruitful for the moment, at least in the case of Bali.

Meanwhile, AP quoted a flight booking company as saying that cheap airfares were overwhelming terror jitters, with more people booking holidays to Bali and throughout the Asian region this year compared to last year.

The bombs were not scaring off all holiday-makers, said Don Birch, president of Singapore-based Abacus International, a leading computerized reservation system for the Asian region.

Instead, Bali had seen "an uptick" in flight bookings for the 2002 Christmas season compared with last year, thanks in part to deeply discounted fares being offered by airlines, he said.

Birch said there was a 2 percent to 4 percent increase in holiday travel throughout the Asian region compared to last year, with fare cuts driving the mini boom.

"We are seeing price-focused travelers come out of the woodwork," Birch said.

Singapore Airlines sold 11,000 seats to Bali in 10 days following the announcement in November of a nearly half-price round trip fare to the island, said Innes Willox, a spokesman for the airline.