Published on : Saturday, February 22, 2014
Australian tourist visits have been quite slow and is causing concern with the Bali Tourism Agency. The inflow has been slow since the last few years. Australian tourists are the largest visiting tourists in the island.
Nyoman Wardawan, the agency’s promotion head said that given Australian visitors contributed most to Bali’s tourist figures, declining growth could impact tremendously on the island’s overall visitor numbers, so even the slightest decrease should not be played down.
In Bali the total number of Australian tourists amounted to 25.2 percent last year. The figure was higher than other visitors from Europe, Southeast Asia and America added Nyoman.
The number of Australian visitors, however, posted growth of less than 1 percent last year compared to the previous year. The reason needs to be fathomed as Australian tourists are major factor in running the economy of Bali.
The latest data from the agency shows that despite more tourists arriving from the neighboring country every year, the province experienced double-digit drops in the rate of growth of Australian tourists in 2011 and 2012. The data shows that 3.28 million tourists visited the island last year, up by 13.37 percent compared to the previous year.
While overall tourist numbers increased, Australian visitors booked a muted growth of 0.31 percent in 2013. The percentage growth of Australian visitors was huge in 2009 and 2010, reaching 44.49 percent and 45.25 percent, respectively, at the same time replacing Japan as the island’s biggest tourist contributor. This growth, however, slumped to 22.09 percent in 2011 and recorded a further decline to 4.15 percent in 2012.
Conducting road shows in Australia and making Bali more popular to the Australian will perhaps bring them more to Bali.
Ketut Ardana, head of the Bali chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita), said he had yet to speak with members, especially those handling clients from Australia.
“We will coordinate on this immediately, because Australia is not a market we can neglect, both in promotion and management,” he said.
Krisna Teja, the association’s division head for the Australian market, acknowledged that the number of tourists from that particular country handled by his firm decreased by around 10 percent in 2013.
Krisna said he initially thought that the drop was temporary as Australians were opting to travel to farther away destinations after the country’s economic recovery post the global recession.
Based on the records, there is a 6 percent decline in January to February, compared to the same period last year.
With the middle class growing in Australia and they are the niche population that Bali needs to focus on for attracting to its pristine island. There has to be more focus on developing the infrastructure in Bali, with improvements in the airport and the traffic system in Bali.
Tags: Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita), Australian, bali
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