AS ash spewed by Mt Rinjani on nearby Lombok forced the closure of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport until at least Friday, outbound agents in the region are not fearful of any long-term impacts on inbound tourism to the popular Indonesian island.
Most agencies are continuing to operate their scheduled Bali tours as usual, implementing contingency plans to cope with unexpected changes should they arise.
Chan Brothers Travel Singapore’s marketing communications executive, Rebecca Chia told TTG Asia e-Daily that they had provided a 24-hour emergency support hotline for a group of 15 travellers from Singapore heading to Bali tomorrow.
She said: “We are closely monitoring the local situation to assess its continual development. We will ensure customers are well informed of the situation over in Bali and the prevailing travel advisories prior to reservation.”
At press time, Intrepid Travel Australia will operate trips scheduled for departure on November 7. “At the moment, our travellers haven’t been affected,” said James Thornton, Intrepid’s managing director. “But we have sent a letter out to all passengers who are due to start their trip this Saturday, just to let them know of their leader’s details and what to do in the event that their inbound flight is delayed.”
Said Alicia Seah, director of marketing communications at Dynasty Travel Singapore, which has 29-pax group departing next week for Bali: “If the situation does not improve and flights do not resume by next week, we will assist our customers if they wish to deviate their travel (plans) to other regional destinations (like) Malaysia, Vietnam or Cambodia.”
Likewise, Adam Kamal, general manager at Olympik Holidays Malaysia, has not received any cancellations for leisure tours in December. He said: “I don’t think there will be a lasting effect (from this eruption) unless there are further eruptions.”
Positive that the airport closure will be a temporary disruption, John Chan, business consultant of Kuala Lumpur-based Kris International Traveltours, has advised his corporate clients to go ahead with their year-end travel plans.
Looking ahead, Flight Centre’s head of leisure travel, Tom Walley, expects Bali to remain popular with the Australian market.
“Bali bookings remain steady despite air travel disruptions,” he said. “The ash cloud is certainly inconvenient to travellers, but the destination is a resilient favourite that is consistently the number one destination for Flight Centre customers.
“The biggest lesson when travelling to Bali is to ensure you have adequate travel insurance to cover you should something similar happen again,” he added.
Sharing similar sentiments, Dynasty Travel’s Seah added: “All passengers are recommended to purchase comprehensive travel insurance so that they can travel with ease of mind. Travel insurance will cover flight delays, lost baggage and wide range of protection benefits.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Elliot and S Puvaneswary
