BALI’S hotel sector is grappling with low occupancies during the week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit following the closure of the island’s airport and cancellation of over 670 flights.
To facilitate the arrivals and departures of APEC delegates, Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport announced that operations would be suspended on October 6, 8 and 9 (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 27, 2013).
About 50 per cent of the 1,370 flights scheduled to land during the Summit week were cancelled, representing a total of 106,171 seats.
Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts’ general manager corporate sales and marketing, Guido Andriano, said: “Our hotels in Nusa Dua and surrounding areas are running at full occupancy, but the ones in the Kuta area are running at below 50 per cent occupancy when (normally) they should be running at 60 per cent (at this time of the year).
“Travellers have expected the airport closure and tight security levels on the island, perceiving these as inconveniences when moving around, so they have chosen to postpone their trips to Bali…However, it is a long weekend this time, so we do hope to see traffic flowing, especially for the domestic market.”
Tauzia Hotel Management’s director, Christoph Glass, said: “We have anticipated that the week will be slow for several hotels in areas like Kuta and Seminyak, as travellers, especially the Indonesians, South Koreans and Japanese, are not arriving during the week due to the many flight cancellations.”
Garuda Indonesia alone has suspended the operation of 139 flights, including routes from Bali to Tokyo (both to Narita and Haneda), Osaka, Singapore, Surabaya, Jogjakarta, Bandung, Lombok, Makassar and Jakarta.
However, Glass expects traffic will bounce back after the end of the Summit.
