Mr. Ardika is a well known and admired individual within Bali's tourism community, having once served as the Regional Director of Tourism for Bali. The local industry has warmly endorsed the appointment of a native son of Bali to this key National post in tourism.

Mr. Ardika, in brief comments made at his appointment ceremony, cited the important role Indonesia has traditionally played in PATA and the generous offers of technical assistance from PATA in relaunching the Indonesian tourism product.

Speaking at the same ceremony, former Minister of Tourism and newly-appointed Presidential Advisor on Tourism and Culture, Mr. Joop Ave, noted the current very positive developments in Bali tourism and predicted that Indonesian tourism as a whole will soon experience a boom due to the very attractive prices now available to visitors.

 

BALI AS  PROTOTYPE FOR "GREEN"  HOTELS

The Bali-based environmental group WISNU Foundation, in cooperation with Indonesia's environmental agency, BAPEDAL, and several hotels in the southern part of Bali, are currently developing an environmental rating system that will eventually be applied throughout Indonesia. Hotels will be rated in terms of impact on fresh water supplies and their general environmental conduct.

While specific criteria to be used in the evaluation are currently under discussion, hotels will eventually be graded on an evaluation of their responses to 100 important environmental factors created by the International Hotel Environment Initiative (IHEI) and based on that group's manual - Environmental Management for Hotels. In cooperation with BAPEDAL and WISNU, the IHEI list will be modified for the Indonesian regulatory environment and also include incentives for hotels that mobilize community action in managing their environmental impact.

Once the system is tested and up and running - expected to occur sometime in 1999, BAPEDAL will evaluate all hotels in Indonesia and announce on a yearly basis the results of their surveys. Hotels with the worst achievement will receive a black rating, with incremental improvements from red, blue, green and finally to gold for properties with the best environmental scores.

For more details on this important  environmental initiative contact Yuyun Ilham, Executive Director of Yayasan Wisnu at Tel/Fax 62 - (0)361 424758 or e-mail to greenbali@denpasar.wasantara.net.id

 

The latest edition of PATA's Issues and Tends (July 1998) carries a front page article on the demonstrable positive growth that results in markets which pursue a deregulation of their airline  industries  and declare an open-air policy.

The deregulation of the U.S. air market has provided  the American public with the lowest air fares in history and, as a result, a booming domestic tourism industry.  European deregulation has prompted the emergence of a large number of new European carriers offering dramatic savings to the travelling public.

Quoting from the PATA publication, "Now would seem to be the time to launch airlines in Asia that openly offer lower fares, although this would require the region's governments to more liberal in their approach to aviation. Current low fares in Asia are mainly under-the-counter discounts and they are about 20 to200 percent above the European low-cost airline levels. Given Asia's lower costs, they should logically be far below those levels.

To cite  examples of how open-skies and deregulation benefit tourism, according to the PATA report,  the U.S./Netherlands open skies agreement has resulted in a 100 percent increase in capacity and a 225 percent increase in traffic between those two countries. Liberalization between the U.S. and Japan has resulted in 106 new frequencies being requested by just 3 airlines, plus 56 by other carriers. If approved, this would result in an additional 5 million more seats per year!

We hope our readers in the Government are listening.

 

ITPO OFFICES CLOSED AROUND THE WORLD

Much has been made of the recent decision to close Indonesian Tourist Promotion Offices (ITPO) around the world. This move, necessitated by Indonesia's sever financial woes, is certainly a heavy blow to an already suffering tourism industry's efforts to revive itself.

But, on another level, the closure of the ITPO offices may be emblematic of a larger trend world-wide. Nancy Cockerell a PATA researcher points out that the trend to reduce or curtail National Travel Organizations (NTOs) "is not unique to Pacific Asia." Some of the world's leading NTOs are cutting government funding for tourism promotion and marketing.

France - even in the year of the World Football Cup - reduced its NTO's budget for the third year  running. The German government has announced that it will gradually withdraw public funding of tourism promotion and turn this task over to the private sector. In the U.S.A,  the United States  Travel & Tourism Administration (USTAA) has been disbanded and replaced by the industry-funded Travel Industry Association (TIA).

BALI PROMO with its plan to raise funds through industry subscription appears to be the shape-of-things-to-come for tourism destination marketing.

 

CIS TRAVEL MARKET

The PATA Europe Division is organising a PATA village at the CIS Travel Market, Sept. 30-October 3 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The event provides a valuable opportunity to meet with the leading tourism professionals in Russia, which is quickly becoming a key market for the Pacific Asia region. Registration costs US$1,400 for PATA members.

Finnair, the event's official airline, is offering AD75 to St. Petersburg. Contact the PATA Europe Division, fax: (377) 92 05 61 33 or E-mail: pata@monaco.net.

 

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FOCUS ON TRAVEL TO PACIFIC ASIA

A number of major international media outlets will be featuring stories on travel to Pacific Asia in the coming weeks. Major articles in Travel & Leisure, U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek will focus on the travel bargains to the region as well as regional festivals.

Newspaper travel sections throughout North America and Europe have been using excerpts from PATA's "What's New in Pacific Asia" press release. PATA Members are encouraged to send consumer-related announcements to PATA Communications. Fax: (1-415) 986-3458. E-mail: communications@pata.org.

Make sure your PR team is using the excellent communications facilities provided by PATA! Speaking of which, Bali Tourism Industry members are reminded that the only cost of having special events and special offers included in future BALI UPDATES  is the time you spend  to send such information to the Editor at balicruz@rad.net.id It's as easy as that.

 

ADDRESS CORRECTION

Edition #060 of the BALI UPDATE carried the announcement of the formation of the PATA  North Sulawesi Chapter. Those wishing to join this Chapter or to obtain information on Indonesia's beautiful far north, should note the following, corrected, e-mail contact for  PATA North Sulawesi Chapter     
nspata@manado.wasantara.net.id

J.M. Daniels
Editor/ Vice Chairman PATA BALI CHAPTER

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