Bali urged to focus on Asia-Pacific tourism market

Bali urged to focus on Asia-Pacific tourism market

Bali has to focus on enhancing the Asia-Pacific tourism market as competition among ASEAN member countries is getting strong, an official has stated.

Ida Bagus Kade Subhiksu, head of the Bali Tourism office, said that the newly established Bali Tourism Promotion Board (BPPD) must look to the Asia-Pacific region.

“We are facing edgy competition from neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines in terms of drawing tourists from the region. We [ASEAN member countries] have similar natural and cultural attractions,” Subhiksu said.

“The quality and quantity of promotional activities in the Asia-Pacific region must be increased. Bali has unique opportunities to lure more visitors from the region because of its distinguishable  natural and cultural assets,” he said.

 Bali could benefit from its location and tourism facilities. “Bali has opened direct flight services from and to major cities in the region,” he stressed.

As of 2013, Bali has 179 potential tourism markets, comprising 28 countries in Asia, nine in ASEAN, 38 countries in Africa and others in the US, Europe, Australia, Latin America and Middle East countries.

In 2012, tourists from the Asia-Pacific region, excluding ASEAN, contributed to around 50.02 percent, with 1,706,910 out of the total 2,892,019 tourist arrivals. Tourists from ASEAN countries contributed 12.85 percent or 371,631 persons.

As of September 2013, Bali had welcomed 2,409,334 tourist arrivals, of which 57.84 percent came from the Asia Pacific. ASEAN tourists amounted to 281,392 persons in the same period.

“Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have been Bali’s traditional tourism markets. We have to maintain them carefully,” Subhiksu suggested.

He went on to say that new emerging markets in the region included New Zealand, India and Hong Kong.

Ketut Ardana, chairman of Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Branch, agreed that tourists from the Asia Pacific had outnumbered those coming from the island’s previous traditional markets, such as the US and Europe.

“We do not have enough direct flight services connecting Bali and other destinations in the US and Europe, especially when Garuda Indonesia stopped its services to Europe,” Ardana said.

Rapid economic growth in some Asian countries, China in particular, and in the emerging economies of ASEAN countries, had boosted these markets, Ardana said.

“Middle-class growth in the region has created a new opportunity for Bali,” he said.

Hans Prawira, the owner of a travel agency focusing on the Asia-Pacific market, said that Bali should be creative and innovative in promoting its tourism packages.

“ASEAN countries have come up with brilliant tourism packages. ASEAN tourist hubs remain in Singapore and Bangkok,” said Prawira said.

Bali urged to focus on Asia-Pacific tourism market