(10/28/2002)
Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism, I Gede Ardika, spoke to Bali's local tourism industry in the week following the October 12th tragedy, outlining what he depicted as a four-step path to recovery for Bali and the nation's tourism industry.
According to the Minister speaking at a press conference in Nusa Dua, complete recovery will only occur in 2004 with the next three months dedicated to industry rescue efforts, the first six months of 2003 for rehabilitation, and the last half of next year for normalization. The central working theme for each of the aforementioned phases will be returning the international market's faith in Bali as a destination that is safe, secure, and interesting for international visitors.
A national meeting of tourism industry leaders was held in Bali and led by the Minister to discuss a number of issues arising from the October 12th bomb attack in Legian-Kuta including a repositioning of the Bali travel product, the handling of information, and undertaking "road shows" – all within the context of empathetic steps to restore Bali's positive public image.
In order to bridge the time necessary for Bali's recovery the industry has agreed to undertake an unprecedented marketing campaign aimed at the domestic market, setting for itself an ambitious target of domestic arrivals of 5 million people, a total roughly equivalent to 5% of the countries total population.
© Bali
Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced
if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com.
