Chinese tourists watching a lion dance performance as they arrive at Ngurah Rai International Airport following the Chinese Government's resumption of travel for citizens in Bali. - Reuters
BALI (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Business may only be at a fraction of the levels reached three years ago, but Putu Darmaya, founder of tour and resort operator Caspla Bali is confident a tourism recovery is finally at hand.
Last month, China lifted Covid-19 travel restrictions, its citizens to travel abroad freely for the first time in nearly three years. Since then more than 10,000 holiday makers from China have arrived at the popular Indonesian island of Bali.
For Putu, 46, who had mostly relied on Chinese tourists for his business offering day trips and stays on Nusa Penida, a nearby island south-east of Bali, Beijing’s decision was nothing less than a stay of execution.
“If the Covid restrictions went on much longer we would have gone bankrupt,” Putu told The Straits Times.
In better days before the pandemic, he employed 200 staff and had in 2019 taken out a 50 billion rupiah (US$3.3mil) bank loan to add boats and expand his 26-room resort on Nusa Penida. He’s now preparing to ramp up business again.
“Even though it’s a small number of travellers I’ve started calling my workers to come back to work.”
In 2019, arrivals from China numbered nearly 1.2 million, just slightly behind the Australians, who formed the largest group with 1.23 million arrivals. The return of Chinese holiday-makers will be a welcome lift for the recovery of Bali’s all important travel industry.
Tourism officials say the recovery will be slow as airlines struggle for aircraft and Bali aims for higher-spending travellers.
“We predict the number of flights will begin to improve by the middle of the year,” Ida Bagus Agung, chairman of the Bali Tourism Board told The Straits Times.
Australians reclaimed the top spot for Bali arrivals in 2019 owing to a crackdown on shady package tours aimed at corralling Chinese travellers into businesses owned by their countrymen.
Known as “zero-dollar tours”, tourists were lured with free - or almost free - flights, food and accommodation only to be pressured once in Bali into buying goods made in China such as silk apparel and kitchen appliances that would be delivered to their homes back in China. These schemes were estimated to have diverted about US$1,500 in revenue per traveller away from local businesses.
In 2018, Bali’s government shut down 16 businesses owned by Chinese nationals that were offering hefty kickbacks in return for funneling tourists to their stores.
“We don’t want that to happen again,” Ida Bagus said. “We are focused on quality not quantity.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, the local government has trained up some 600 local Balinese tour guides, including loading up graduates with basic Chinese language skills through free courses. The aim was to supplant non-native guides who don’t know the island as well as locals do, Ida Bagus said.
Late last month Indonesian low cost carrier Lion Air began once-weekly direct flights between Bali and Shenzhen.
Taiwan-based carriers China Airlines and Eva Air together operate five flights a week between China and Bali via Taipei.
Longer term, though, the industry will need to contend with an aircraft shortage which crimps the ability of airlines to add capacity, experts have said.
More than 160 direct flights operated between mainland China and Bali in December 2019, according to local airport data.
Last month France’s Airbus, the world’s biggest aircraft maker said its deliveries in 2022 added up to 661 planes - falling well short of its original goal for the year of 720, owing to supply chain snags.
Even so, for business operators like Putu, a native of Nusa Penida, the slow uptick in arrivals from China is better than nothing.
On a recent weekday Putu said he had 70 day-trippers paid up for excursions from Bali’s main island to Nusa Penida, where they will splash out on dining, snorkeling and riding jet skis.
While that total represents only 5 per cent of his ridership during the peak months three years ago, Putu remains optimistic.
“The Chinese market is huge,” Putu said. “We like to have them come to Bali.”
