{"id":1254,"date":"2020-07-03T03:24:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T03:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/?p=25914"},"modified":"2020-08-03T03:24:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T03:24:23","slug":"bali-tourism-virtual-travel-event-taps-on-hotel-reopening-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/bali-tourism-virtual-travel-event-taps-on-hotel-reopening-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Bali Tourism Virtual Travel Event Taps on Hotel Reopening Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Bali<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n

Bali, Indonesia, July 3, 2020 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ Bali\u2019s hotels are ready and willing \u2013 but not necessarily able \u2013 to reopen their doors and start welcoming international travellers again, according to the Bali Hotels Association<\/a>\u2019s (BHA) Government Relations Director, Fransiska Handoko.<\/p>\n

Waiting on the government\u2019s go-ahead, travel bubbles and a lack of domestic tourists are the overriding concerns for a Bali travel industry trying to battle through the Covid pandemic according to key leading speakers at the recent \u2018Bali Tourism \u2013 The Way Back\u2019 virtual event.<\/p>\n

Fielding questions from respected travel journalist Mimi Hudoyo, TTG Asia\u2019s Editor Indonesia, Handoko was candid about the efforts of BHA members and their responses to the catastrophic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused more disruption to the island\u2019s main industry than previous crisis.<\/p>\n

However, Handoko pointed out, despite preparations by the island\u2019s hospitality businesses, it is the responsibility of the Bali\u2019s provincial government to make the final ruling. \u201cOur members are more than ready to reopen, with hotels continuing training programmes and maintaining standard operating procedures. We are ready to welcome guests but the decision must come from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on Bali\u2019s interest in creating travel bubbles with China, South Korea, Japan and Australia, Handoko said, \u201cBali and Indonesia are ready for travel bubbles. However, the rest of the world still sees Indonesia as a high-risk country, so these plans are still in the discussion stage. It may be more logical to form travel bubbles within ASEAN because of the shorter travel times. But we are still observing how the situation will evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the event highlights was an \u2018on-the-ground\u2019 hotel perspective from Emily Subrata, Director, Sudamala Resorts and Lucienne Anhar, Co-Owner and Managing Director, Tugu Hotels & Restaurants<\/a>, who discussed the different methods hotel owners have used to counter the during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

On the subject of hotel shutdowns Emily Subrata said, \u201cthe decision to close the hotels was the single hardest decision we have ever had to make. The necessity was due to health concerns and I continue to stand by the decision. We have taken the longer- term view of protecting as many jobs as possible despite the economic impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staying on the subject of the impact on hotel staff Lucienne Anhar commented \u201cwe are a family business and our employees are part of our core family, and we are trying to retain staff as best we can.\u201d Adding \u201csome of our hotels have remained open, attracting local business and we are slowly re-opening food and beverage outlets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Positive news related to reopening highlighted the importance of low-cost carriers and how the industry\u2019s most-coveted market, China, may lead the charge back to the island. \u201cAirlift is everything; you can\u2019t stay there if you can\u2019t get there. The low-cost airlines and the regional airlines can react more quickly than the large, legacy carriers. This is one of the reasons we think the China market can potentially return in the fourth quarter of this year, or certainly by the first quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n

Data from recently concluded market research in first-tier cities in China on Bali tourism sentiment showed that 86% of respondents would like to travel to Bali<\/a>, and 24% had been there before. As to when Chinese would travel overseas, 48% said they\u2019d want to travel late this year or early in 2021.<\/p>\n

Recovery sentiment was tempered somewhat by insight from travel industry data group STR\u2019s Area Director \u2013 Asia Pacific, Jesper Palmqvist, who said: \u201cI hope I\u2019m wrong but I don\u2019t think China will travel in 2020 given the fact that there\u2019s no drive-market in Bali, like there is in Bangkok, for example, where the domestic market will spur the reboot. The best-case scenario is that demand could reach its previous high levels by 2022 but with all that new supply, along with other contributing factors, performance-wise, it will take much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bali, Indonesia, July 3, 2020 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ Bali\u2019s hotels are ready and willing \u2013 but not necessarily able \u2013 to reopen their doors and start welcoming international travellers again, according to the Bali Hotels Association\u2019s (BHA) Government Relations Director, Fransiska Handoko. Waiting on the government\u2019s go-ahead, travel bubbles and a lack of domestic tourists …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-travel-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}