PHRI Bali: Thousands of Australian tourists cancel trips due to floods
Denpasar — The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Bali has stated that thousands of prospective foreign tourists, particularly from Australia, have cancelled their visits to Bali due to flooding.
“We have not yet calculated the actual losses, but clearly there are losses from the floods, and the impact is that thousands have cancelled from Australia,” said I Gusti Ngurah Rai Suryawijaya, Deputy Chairman of PHRI Bali.
Speaking in Denpasar on Saturday, Rai could not recall the exact number of cancellations but confirmed it exceeded 1,000 tourists, according to reports from PHRI members, particularly in Badung Regency.
“It is Badung that has been most affected because it is the central area. Those who have cancelled are from Australia for now, and hopefully there are no others. What we worry about is a travel warning from that country, which is what concerns us most,” he said.
Extreme weather with heavy rain and wind for nearly a week caused flooding across various roads in Bali, with the worst conditions occurring in Denpasar and Badung, which are the main tourist accommodation centres.
From reports by PHRI Bali members, South Badung alone experienced flooding at five locations from Legian to Kuta during the recent peak rainy season—the primary accommodation areas for foreign tourists.
“This has led to numerous inquiries from abroad reaching us, asking what has happened, with some tourists even being evacuated. That is the danger,” said Rai.
News of the flooding reached prospective tourist-generating countries, prompting them to cancel their visits and consequently causing economic losses to Bali.
“This is what has occurred and it is very damaging. We are losing potential revenue from business operators; hotels have had bookings cancelled, and government revenue from taxes is also lost,” said Rai.
Consequently, PHRI Bali believes that concrete solutions are needed to resolve this flooding problem, particularly as Bali has been designated the World’s Best Destination 2026, which makes such extraordinary flooding during the rainy season inappropriate.
The tourism business association acknowledges that massive development of tourism facilities that has consumed green spaces has contributed to water overflowing easily during high rainfall intensity.
However, according to Rai, who is also Chairman of PHRI Badung, river normalisation could be an option to prevent flooding.
Regarding the prospect of redirecting tourists to North, East, or West Bali when floods occur in the South, Rai noted this would not be straightforward, as there is concern that tourists might decide to leave Bali altogether rather than being distributed across other regencies.
Currently, hotel occupancy in Bali stands at a low 60 per cent capacity. According to Rai, this is due not only to the flooding and other factors, but also because this month is not yet a peak tourism season.