Report in latest Jakarta Post
Holiday boom as tourists pour into island
Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Running barefoot on Kuta Beach, a young boy searches for the perfect place to start constructing a sand castle. Carrying a bucket and a shovel, he signals to his friends that he has found the ideal spot.
Spanning the length of the white sand beach are hundreds of tourists from all corners of the archipelago and the world. It is peak season in Bali, and the island is bursting at the seams with new arrivals.
"I see people flocking to Kuta, from the Hard Rock Hotel to Balangan, the rocky hill area near Jimbaran," said Aloysius Purwa, the head of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Tour and Travel Association.
The occupancy rate of hotels has risen steadily since the middle of June, when Indonesian school holidays commenced.
The marketing and communications manager at the Kuta-based Hard Rock Hotel Bali, Dewi Endah Banowati, said the hotel's occupancy rate is at 80 percent of their 418 rooms.
"We have been really busy since mid June. Before that, our occupancy rate hovered between 60 and 70 percent," she said.
She said that in June family groups made up the majority of hotel patrons.
A public relations officer at Nikko Bali Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua, Novie Margarani, said their 386-room hotel was enjoying an average occupancy rate of between 70 and 87 percent at the moment.
"Our occupancy rate was only at 60 percent in May," she said.
Airlines have also increased their number of flights to Bali during the peak season, with Garuda Indonesia adding 16 flights to Denpasar from destinations around the country. Aloysius said other domestic carriers have also increased their number of flights into Denpasar during the holidays.
Aloysius said domestic tourists enjoy traveling to Kuta for its beaches and shopping.
"Wealthier tourists prefer to go to more secluded and exclusive hotels such as the Ritz Carlton in Jimbaran Bay, Conrad in Benoa or the Bvlgari or Four Seasons Resort in Jimbaran," he said.
Foreign tourists are also flocking to Bali in record numbers.
"In the first quarter of this year, foreign tourist arrivals to the island were the highest we've seen in the last five years," he said.
"This shows that Bali's tourism industry is recovering from the bombings in 2002 and 2005," he said.
The bombings greatly affected tourism in Bali, with the industry making up more than 40 percent of the island's workforce.
The current holiday season looks promising for the tourist and hospitality industries on the island, with more and more people eager to spend their leisure time and money in Bali.
Dutch national Emma Kwee, 26, has visited Bali eight times and said Bali seems to be once again becoming a lively tourist destination.
"I visited Bali after the bombing and it was very quiet. It is a lot more crowded now," she said.
Immigration officers at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Tuban and Denpasar recorded 472,062 direct foreign tourist arrivals in this year's first quarter, significantly higher that last year's 442,922 arrivals during the same period.
Tourism officials in Bali hope the number of foreign tourists visiting the island will reach 1.4 million visitors this year.
Data from the Bali Tourism Board shows that last year the number of foreign tourists visiting the island reached 1.2 million.
Aloysius said foreign tourists saw a safe and secured Bali in 2006, so they are becoming more confident to visit the island.
"Many past visitors feel they can no longer wait to return to Bali. So they just ignore the travel warnings and come," he said.
A number of countries including the United States and Australia are currently advising their citizens that travel to Bali and other parts of Indonesia should be avoided due to the potential threat of terrorist activity.
"But things just have to go on," Ulil Albus, 29, from Stuttgart, Germany, said.
He has been in Bali for one week, spending most of his time surfing in Kuta. He has also traveled to the art village of Ubud.
"What attracts me to Bali is that it has two sides. One is the tourist site in Kuta, which is good for partying, and (the other side is) the rest of Bali, which has a laid-back culture and friendly people," he said.