Despite Rising Fuel Costs, Domestic Tourism Expected to Grow 15% in 2008.  

Bisnis Indonesia predicts that domestic tourism totals to Bali will grow by 15% in 2008, in part due to the unprecedented surge of local tourist coming to the Island during the current school holiday period.

Of the 231 member carriers of IATA, 203 (88%) have earned IOSA certification.

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The warnings were first introduced by the U.S. State Department in November 2000 following a series of bombing attacks in Jakarta and prior to two deadly terrorist bombing attacks in Bali in October 2002 and October 2005 that claimed over 240 lives.

In lifting the ban, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron Hume issued a statement On Sunday. May 25, 2008 saying, “the government … has disrupted, arrested and prosecuted numerous terrorist elements.” In his emailed statement to the press Hume said, “the U.S. has lifted the warning due to objective improvements made by Indonesia in its current security situation.”

Indonesian authorities have a record second to none for tracking down terrorists and bringing them to trial, having convicted hundreds of Islamic terrorists.

Ambassador Hume said the Embassy would not modify its security precautions and, like most public places in Indonesia, would continue to practice a high level of diligence.

Quoted by the Associated Press, Indonesia’s top anti-terror official, Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai, said that while he welcomed the U.S. decision it would in no way slow down efforts to battle terrorism. If anything, he said, “it will push us to be more effective in handling security matters.”

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Voting for the first DestinAsian Readers’ Choice Awards was held in the latter half of last year through a survey which sought readers’ opinions on their favorite destinations, hotels, and airlines in the Asia-Pacific region.

Readers were required to nominate a winner in each category and provide a short explanation on the reasons for their choice.

The announcement of the inaugural winners at a special award luncheon today at The Peninsula, Hong Kong.

“These awards are particularly meaningful because they reflect the views of our readers who are seasoned travelers for business and leisure,” DestinAsian Founder and Publisher, Ronald Liem said.

Bali gained the following distinctions in the First DestinAsian Readers Choice Awards;

Among those slated to appear:

• Tony Fernandez, Group CEO AirAsia who will discuss the success of AirAsia in reshaping the airline industry, under the topic of “Transforming the Way People Fly.”

• Gavin Mehrotra, International Media Director, The Coca-Cola Company.

• Vishnu Mohan, Asia Pacific CEO, MPG.

• Tim Balbirnie, CEO South Asia, Synovate.

• Prashun Dutt, Director-Consultant: Marketing, Strategy & Communications for UTUSAN Newspapers and Magazines and The Sun (Nexnews)

• Ian Stewart, Senior VP, MTV Networks Asia.

• Debby Sadrach, Home & Personal Care Director, Unilever Indonesia.

• Barney Loehnis, Asia Pacific Director, Isobar.

• Mark Holden, Managing Director, PHD Australia.APMF will be held at the Bali International Convention Center (BICC), Nusa Dua, Bali June 4-7, 2008.

More information: http://www.asiapacificmediaforum.com

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1/19/2008) Travel Trade Gazette’s (TTG) Mimi Hudoyo reports that the Indonesian Department of Culture and Tourism is seeking agreement to change current visa regulations to permit visa-free short visits from 10 countries.

If the proposal submitted to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights is successful, the citizens of Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands and Russia would be able to undertake holiday visits without having to purchase either a 7 or 30-day visa at the Indonesian port of entry as required under the visa-on-arrival policy now in place. Currently, 63 countries are eligible to pay a fee of US$10 for a 7-day visa or US$25 for a 30-day visa.

According to TTG, the move by the Ministry is in support of the goal to bring 7 million foreign tourists to Indonesia in 2008. “Other efforts include increasing immigration counters at Soekarno-Hatta Jakarta and Ngurah Rai Bali airports; encouraging airlines, both domestic and international, to open or increase services to tourist detonations; and placing multilingual information boards (Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin other than English and Bahasa Indonesia) in the two major airports,” reports TTG.

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Indonesia AirAsia (IAA) have announced their intention to open an additional operational base in Bali as the next step to establishing a regional presence for the Carrier.

The Chief Officer of IAA, Dharmadi, told Bisnis Indonesia that the new Bali home base will commence operations in late March 2008, serving as a turn around point for new flights planned to Darwin and Perth in Australia.

The new Australian destinations are expected to start operating in September-October 2008, six months after the new home base becomes operational.

The new Australian service are expected to be served by Indonesia AirAsia’s fleet of Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-300 aircraft.

The Bali base is also expected to offer direct flight connections to Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kinabalu.

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While positive passenger growth in the vicinity of 6% is respectable, it still represents a slow down from the current year where domestic air travel expanded an estimated 15%.

Sounding a pessimistic message, the Secretary General of INACA, Tengku Burhanuddin, said that current fuel surcharges of Rp. 100,000 ($10.52) per flight fails to cover the entire substantial additional burden of higher fuel costs which are contributing to the operating losses being experienced by some Indonesian air operators.

A more optimistic view of the future of domestic aviation has been offered by a Director of the Department of Civil Aviation, Tri S. Sunoko, who thinks domestic air passenger traffic will increase by 14% in 2008.

According to Tri, “my predictions are not a drastic as INACA’s forecast of only 6% growth.”

Tri defended his more buoyant view which he said is based on growth of the general economy, consumer spending power and anticipated future fuel costs.

In the long term, insisted Tri, Indonesian domestic aviation will continue to demonstrate strong growth.

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In order to help achieve the ambitious target, the Ministry has established an official calendar of more than 100 official events to be hosted across Indonesia throughout 2008.

If Indonesia manages to hit its proclaimed target, it will represent something on the order of a 27% increase in arrivals for a single year.

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