Participants of PATA meeting told to bring health passes

Participants of PATA meeting told to bring health passes

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

Delegates to the annual Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
conference, to be held in Nusa Dua, Bali from April 13 to April
17, are expected to come with up to date health certificates
explaining that they are free of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), said local chairman of PATA organizing
committee.

Ida Bagus Alit Putra, who is also the deputy governor of Bali,
told reporters on Tuesday, that despite the outbreak of SARS, 595
participants from 41 countries would attend the 52nd PATA
conference.

"All participants at the conference, especially those coming
from Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, China/Hong Kong and Taiwan are
expected to bring a current health certificate," Alit Petra said.

He added that the upcoming PATA conference was expected to
improve the ruined image of Bali, which was hit hard by the Oct.
12 Bali bombing, and is part of the government's Bali recovery
program.

Meanwhile I Gede Pitana, head of the Bali Tourism Office,
added that the health certificate would be checked upon arrival
at Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International airport.

"Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, every
air passenger must enter a special check area at the airport to
be checked by the officials to show that he or she is free from
SARS," Pitana said.

The health certificates from the participant's countries of
origin will help accelerate the checking system, he added.

Pitana said that Bali is now suffering from a slump of tourist
arrivals since the terror attacks last October. In January 2002,
Bali received 87,000 foreign visitors as compared to January 2003
with only 67,000 visitors. In February 2003, around 63,000
tourists came to the island, compared to 96,000 in the same
period last year.

In March 2003, the number of visitor slightly increased to
74,000 tourists. The number of visitors that arrived in March
2002, however, reached 113,000.

Pitana also said that the average tourist arrival to Bali in
early March reached around 2,400 persons a day. In the fourth
week of that month, when the Iraq war began, the average daily
arrival dropped drastically to only 1,400.

Pitana, however, refused to admit that the drop in tourist
arrivals was mainly due to the cuts of international flights to
Bali, especially Singapore Airline.

A few days ago, Gede Widiartha, head of the immigration office
at Ngurah Rai airport, confirmed that the office had already
received an announcement from Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines said it planned to reduce the number of
Singapore-Denpasar direct flights from 28 flights per week to
only seven flights per week effective April 5.

But, on April 6, there were four Singapore Airline flights
plying direct Denpasar-Singapore route. However, Singapore
Airlines officials at Ngurah Rai airport were not available for
comment.

Ngurah Rai Airport's director IGM Dhordy added that Singapore
Airlines had already reduced the number of flights to Bali back
in October after the bombings.

Widhiarta said that his office has not yet received any
announcement from other foreign airline companies such as Thai
Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific or Garuda Indonesia that they
would reduce their direct flights to Bali.

"Those companies are still on regular flight schedules,"
Widhiarta said.