BALI TOURISM RECOVERS FROM ASH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY RAUNG ERUPTION by Fardah

   Jakarta, Sept 10, 2015 (Antara)- Indonesia is prone to volcanic disasters as currently 18 volcanoes are in the status of watch out, three in alert status, and one in warning status.

         Mount Raung, one of the currently erupting active volcanoes, is located on the borders of Bondowoso, Banyuwangi, and Jember districts in East Java Province.

         The eruption of Mount Raung had led to some temporary closures of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali since July 9, with ash clouds drifting towards one of the world's most famous tourist islands.

         Besides the Ngurah Rai Airport, four other Indonesian airports, mainly Lombok International Airport and Selaparang Airport in West Nusa Tenggara Province; Blimbingsari Airport in Banyuwangi, East Java Province; and Notohadinegoro Airport in Jember, East Java, were also shut down temporarily due to intermittent eruptions.

         At least 75 thousand passengers had canceled their flights via Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. Several airlines and hotels complained of losses due to the impacts of the volcanic eruptions.

         One of the airlines complained that they suffered a loss of around Rp5 billion after having to cancel 70 flights to and from Bali on July 10-11, 2015. Another airline lost Rp8 billion following the cancellations of 200 flights from July 10 to 22, 2015.

         The management of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport claimed to have incurred losses amounting to US$40 thousand per day due to Mount Raung's eruptions that have frequently forced temporary closures of the airport.

         "Due to the closures of Ngurah Rai airport, 10 thousand foreign tourists failed to arrive in Bali per day. Moreover, on a weekend day, around 14 thousand foreign tourists could not land on the Island of Gods (Bali). In total, there were 41 thousand foreign tourists," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya stated in early August 2015, while inspecting the Crisis Center Command Post of Mount Raung Eruption set up at the airport.

         He urged the airport's management to focus on two important aspects when the airport is temporarily closed again.

         First, the management must immediately announce the revised arrival and departure schedules of flights when the airport resumes operations after any temporary closures.

         Second, the airport management must provide information on the alternative means of transportation for passengers to reach their destinations through the nearest cities whose airports are not affected by the volcanic eruption.

         The airport management must provide comprehensive information concerning the certainty of tourist departures.

         The minister explained that tourists whose flights got delayed could be transported to Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, or Ubung Terminal and Padangbai seaport in Karangasem in Bali, or to a railway station in Banyuwangi, so that they could continue their trip through alternative routes and means of transportation. 
    Furthermore, the Ministry of Tourism has planned to set up alternative tourist sites in East Java and Bali for air passengers who had to cancel their flights due to the eruption of Mount Raung.

         "There may be a tour package that can take tourists to some areas between Bali and East Java," Minister Yahya noted.

         There are several tourist destinations that can be offered to those whose flights were canceled as the airports were affected by volcanic ash spewed by Mount Raung, the second-highest mountain in East Java.

         Some of the destinations that these tourists can visit are Blue Fire in Banyuwangi and Mount Bromo in Probolinggo, both located in East Java, among others.

         "These two locations are very attractive, relatively cheap, and part of the package," Yahya affirmed.

         Tourists stranded at the airports affected by the volcanic eruption can take advantage of this alternative travel package rather than having to wait for more than 12 hours at the airports.

         Moreover, the minister was optimistic that the free-visa policy granted to people from several countries would be able to boost tourist arrivals in Indonesia.

         However, Mount Raung has been relatively calm for a while now, thereby allowing the airports in Bali and other surrounding regions to operate normally.

         According to the Bali administration's data, the number of foreign tourists visiting the Indonesian resort island in the first seven months of 2015 rose 10.09 percent to 2,299,995 compared to the same period last year.

         "I believe that 95 percent of the foreign tourists who have expressed their intentions to visit Bali again will enable tourist arrivals in Bali to exceed the government-set target of four million for 2015," tourism observer Dewa Nyoman Putraman recently stated.

         Despite the global economic slowdown, the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali via Ngurah Rai Airport remained stable during the January-July 2015 period. The international community still views Bali as a favorite tourist destination.

         The airport served 2,235 international flights in July 2015, an increase of 5.77 percent from 2,113 in the previous month.

         The number of passengers also surged 6.4 percent from 370,231 in June to 393,929 in July 2015, Panusunan Siregar, the head of the Bali Central Bureau of Statistics, noted recently.

         The volume of baggage passing through the Ngurah Rai airport to international destinations was up by 2.57 percent from 5,735 tons in June to 5,883 tons in July this year.

         The number of foreign tourists visiting Bali in July reached 382,683, up 5.99 percent compared to the same period last year, or 6.39 percent from June 2015.

         General Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I branch of Ngurah Rai International Airport Trikora Harjo earlier stated that his office has always made efforts to improve its services as the airport is one of the main entry gates into Indonesia.

         In an Airport Service Quality Survey (ASQ) conducted by the Airport Council International (ACI), Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport ranked third, with Gimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea, and Wuhan Tianhe in China, respectively grabbing the first and second spots.

         The ranking given for Q1 of 2015 saw Bali's air gateway coming third worldwide among the airports serving between 15 and 25 million passengers annually.

         Bali managed to rank higher than Kansai Airport in Japan, Auckland Airport in New Zealand, San Diego Airport in the United States, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland, and Brisbane Airport in Australia.

         The same survey conducted for Q4 of 2014 saw Ngurah Rai ranking seventh in the same category of airports.

         A review is conducted on a total of 30 airports internationally in the category for handling between 15 and 25 million tourists annually.

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(T.F001/A/BESSR/A/Ysp) 10-09-2015 19:18:37