In Reply to: Final nail in Adelaide's coffin? posted by keviin on Monday, 19. February 2007 at 08:30 Bali Time:
with no possibility of any resumption of services now for perhaps a number of years. I have known of this for some time and fell particularly sad as Robert Parker and I fought tooth-and-nail, lobbying anybody who would listen, to have Garuda fly into Adelaide.
I felt a tremendous sense of personal pride with the Inaugural Airbus service touched-down at Adelaide International Terminal. At the time, we operated Golden Bali out of our Mayfair Florists Building and we arranged for every passenger disembarking to receive (at our personal expense) a Sturt's Desert Pea (South Australia's Floral Emblem).
What makes the closure even more sad is the recent announcements of increases in numbers of Aussies returning to Bali. I had always believed that, if Bali could get through Christmas/New Year 06/07 without incident, there would be an immediate turn-around in the Aussie market. What we are seeing now is a direct repeat of the syndrome which followed Bomb1. It's a pity that Jakarta's decision-makers did not have the sense and foresight to look back on previous booking trends.
Even more crazy is that Indonesia's Government is not only making more money available for Tourism Promotion, but has just announced the re-opening of 12 Overeas Tourism Promotion Offices together with the big chance of VOA being extended to 120 days.
VALE GARUDA INDONESIA ADELAIDE OFFICE