WTO says terror a short-term blow

WTO says terror a short-term blow

Dow Jones, Sydney

The Madrid-based World Tourism Organization said Monday that the recent terrorist bombing on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali has dealt a severe blow to regional tourism.

Bali and other Indonesian islands had been popular destinations for Australians until the Oct. 12 bombing of the Sari nightclub that killed an estimated 92 Australians.

The Bali massacre has seen a "dramatic blow to Indonesian tourism...it' a dramatic blow to regional tourism", Geoffrey Lipman, special advisor to the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, told reporters in Sydney.

The World Tourism Organization will meet in London Nov. 12 to assess what can be done to start a global tourism recovery, he said. "There is no silver bullet, no magic answer."

But Christopher Brown, head of Australia's Tourism Task Force, said he is confident the flow of local tourists to Bali will recover by mid-2003.

"Australians are very resilient travelers. We will fly in the middle of a war if there is a cheap airfare. Australians will bounce back quicker than others into that region," Brown said.

Indonesia was the fourth most popular international destination for Australian tourists in the June quarter, behind New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S., according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

"I believe the Bali offerings will be heavily discounted. There will be a lot of cheap holidays to Bali and the market will decide if that is enough to encourage them in the short term," he added.