The Changing Demographics of Bali's Visitors

(1/22/2006)

A tourism survey undertaken in November 2005 by the Center for the Study of Culture and Tourism – Udayana University provides fresh insight into the changing demographic make up of Bali's foreign visitors.

The study, led by a team under the direction of Professor I Made Suradnya, undertook 500 interviews conducted among departing passengers at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport. balidiscovery.com thanks Professor Suradnya for the opportunity to present two graphs from his larger presentation made before a group of leading tourism players in Bali last week.

Sources of Information

As shown on the accompanying graph, the Udayana University study underlined the importance of "word of mouth" in the marketing of Bali's tourism products with 48% of the respondents saying they had obtained their information regarding Bali from friends and families. Also worthy of note, 32% of the respondents indicated that they had used the Internet to help organize their Bali trip.

Accommodation Choices in Bali

Also somewhat unexpected from the latest survey's results was the finding that 22% of those interviewed chose to stay in private villa accommodation in Bali. 64% of those interviewed said they stayed in luxurious or medium-class hotels. These findings suggest a course of future study exploring the impact of the boom in villa-style accommodation in Bali on the spending habits of local visitors and local tax revenues.



Not presented graphically on balidiscovery.com was another finding from the tourism survey that further underlined the importance of "word of mouth" advertising and the need to look after those visitors who continue to visit the island. Respondents when asked about their plans to make a return visit to the island saw 59% responding they were almost certain to return; 34% said they were likely to return; and the remaining 7% were either uncertain or unlikely to make another visit. These very high return visitors indications are all the more remarkable in view that the question was posed to Bali visitors in the month immediately following Bali's latest terrorist attack.