Tourists arriving this afternoon at Bali airport. Credit @Ian Johansson
ACCORDING to airport traffic stats, tourist arrivals are increasing, however it’s not the same situation in hotel occupancies and recreation areas.
“Occupancies have increased, but the increase was not as significant as the airport traffic,” said Indra Trimafo Yudha, the Head of Indonesian Recreation Areas Business Association (PUTRI) of Bali Province on Wednesday.
This situation has created a question mark for tourism businessmen. They surmise that tourists are just flying to Bali in transit to other places. For example to Komodo Island, Lombok, or Labuan Bajo. Or there is a possibility that tourists arriving now don’t have much spending power.
“I asked the ITDC on December 23 and the occupancies were only about 40 percent. Meanwhile, the domestic airport traffic had increased compared to last year, and the international traffic had had a slight increase. That’s why we must evaluate, review, and research the data to find the activities of these tourist,” he said to balipost.com.
Usually, the hotels bookings were already full a week before Christmas. While from November to a week before Christmas, it was normal that the occupancies were low. But, at this moment, hotel and restaurant activities and occupancies are nowhere near normal.
