Bali Bouncing Back: Part II

(6/3/2006)

As reported on balidiscovery.com [Bali Bouncing Back], Bali's tourism industry is showing strong signs of a fast-paced recovery with April 2006 foreign arrivals only -10.65% behind arrivals in April 2005. Although still below par, April's figures are a vast improvement over the post bombing month of November 2005 when business was down -43.26%.

Major Markets

• Japan - Recent recovery trips by Bali tourism officials to Japan have borne fruit with April 2006 month-on-month arrivals down -25.57%, a significant improvement from November 2005 when arrivals slumped a crippling -61.23%. At current comeback rates look for Japanese arrivals to be back on an even keel by August-September 2006.

• Australia - Bombings, drug trials and political squabbles over Papuan refugees continue to take their toll on Bali's arrivals from Australia. Bali's second largest inbound market was still down -45.74% in April 2006, only marginally improved from November 2005 when arrivals from that market to Bali were down -54.80%.



• Taiwan - Back with a vengeance, the Taiwanese figures from April were up +51.4% against April 2005. Taiwan's recovery represents a tremendous turn-around considering that Taiwan figures were down -62.83% in November 2005, the month immediately following the Bali bombing.



• South Korea - Additional flight capacity ex Korea helped to narrow the slump in April arrivals to only -16.5%, much improved from November 2005 when that market was down -49.5%.



• ASEAN - Indonesia nine near neighbors who, together with Indonesia, form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), contributed 10,958 visitors to Bali in April 2006. That total is down -8.36% from April 2005, but, again, much improved from the -61.16% decline in November 2005.



• The Americas - The relatively long-staying and high-spending market from North and South America was still down -19.04% in April 2006, but showing a strong trend for improvement when compared to December when arrivals sagged -32.86%.



• Europe - April 2006 arrivals from the European market demonstrated full recovery, improving 1.9% over April 2005 arrivals. A resilient lot, the European market dipped a relatively modest -13.42% in November 2005 following the October bombing.