Indonesia wants tourists to forget Thailand and travel to Bali
The Bali chapter of the Indonesian Tourist Industry Association (GIPI) sees the situation in Thailand as an opportunity for Bali to boost the number of foreign tourists, especially because Thailand’s coastal tourist destinations, including Phuket, are competing with the Island of the Gods, as Bali is also known.
“Bali will see an increase in the number of foreign tourists who initially planned to visit Thailand but then canceled their trip,” said GIPI Bali chairman Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya according to the Jakarta Post.
“Of course we do not wish for conflict in other countries, but the military coup increases the number of foreign tourists to Bali,” he said, adding that the data would only be ready in June.
A military coup took place in Thailand on May 22, worsening the already dropping tourism arrival numbers to the country.
Visitor numbers to Thailand may fall by 5 per cent this year, the biggest drop since 2009, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok. Foreign arrivals already dropped by 4.9 per cent in the first four months of this year from a year earlier to 8.62 million, according to Thailand Department of Tourism.
There are ore than 50 countries worldwide, including the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, that have issued travel warnings following the coup.
Indonesia’s national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, has decided to decrease its flight frequency to Bangkok from June 1 to July 24, following the decreasing load factor over the past weeks.
Indonesia Air Ticketing Companies Association (Astindo) has estimated a 30 per cent decrease in demand to travel to Thailand from Indonesia within at least the next two or three months, according to the association’s chairperson Elly Hutabarat.
“Thailand offers a lot of interesting tourist destinations, however, safety remains number one. It is inevitable that tourists are worried that there might be an airport closure,” Elly said.
“The army-imposed curfew also reduces tourists’ comfort, as they obviously don’t want to spend their nights in hotel rooms during holidays,” she continued.Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar said should the conflict last longer than predicted, it would significantly affect the number of outbound tourists from Indonesia. The number of foreign tourists that visited Thailand in 2012 reached 22.3 million. Around 6.4 million were from fellow ASEAN countries, data from the ASEAN Secretariat show.
The Bali chapter of the Indonesian Tourist Industry Association (GIPI) sees the situation in Thailand as an opportunity for Bali to boost the number of foreign tourists, especially because Thailand’s coastal tourist destinations, including Phuket, are competing with the Island of the Gods, as Bali is also known. “Bali will see an increase in the number of foreign tourists who initially planned to visit Thailand but then canceled their trip,” said GIPI Bali chairman Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya according to the Jakarta Post. “Of course we do not wish for conflict in other countries, but the military coup increases the...
The Bali chapter of the Indonesian Tourist Industry Association (GIPI) sees the situation in Thailand as an opportunity for Bali to boost the number of foreign tourists, especially because Thailand’s coastal tourist destinations, including Phuket, are competing with the Island of the Gods, as Bali is also known.
“Bali will see an increase in the number of foreign tourists who initially planned to visit Thailand but then canceled their trip,” said GIPI Bali chairman Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya according to the Jakarta Post.
“Of course we do not wish for conflict in other countries, but the military coup increases the number of foreign tourists to Bali,” he said, adding that the data would only be ready in June.
A military coup took place in Thailand on May 22, worsening the already dropping tourism arrival numbers to the country.
Visitor numbers to Thailand may fall by 5 per cent this year, the biggest drop since 2009, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok. Foreign arrivals already dropped by 4.9 per cent in the first four months of this year from a year earlier to 8.62 million, according to Thailand Department of Tourism.
There are ore than 50 countries worldwide, including the US, the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines, that have issued travel warnings following the coup.
Indonesia’s national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, has decided to decrease its flight frequency to Bangkok from June 1 to July 24, following the decreasing load factor over the past weeks.
Indonesia Air Ticketing Companies Association (Astindo) has estimated a 30 per cent decrease in demand to travel to Thailand from Indonesia within at least the next two or three months, according to the association’s chairperson Elly Hutabarat.
“Thailand offers a lot of interesting tourist destinations, however, safety remains number one. It is inevitable that tourists are worried that there might be an airport closure,” Elly said.
“The army-imposed curfew also reduces tourists’ comfort, as they obviously don’t want to spend their nights in hotel rooms during holidays,” she continued.Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar said should the conflict last longer than predicted, it would significantly affect the number of outbound tourists from Indonesia. The number of foreign tourists that visited Thailand in 2012 reached 22.3 million. Around 6.4 million were from fellow ASEAN countries, data from the ASEAN Secretariat show.
