There has been a 26% decline in bookings to Indonesia since the August 5 earthquake in Lombok, according to ForwardKeys.
Prior to the devastating earthquakes, Forwardkeys said Indonesia’s tourism was having a good year – bookings from January 1 were up 10% on the equivalent period in 2017. That growth all but ceased after the first quake; and following the second, bookings fell 26%.
The tourist trade has been particularly badly affected because bookings to the country’s top tourist destination, Bali, which is adjacent to Lombok, have fallen more drastically than bookings to Indonesia as a whole.
From January 1 until the first earthquake, bookings for Bali were up 15.2%. However, since the second quake, they have fallen by 42.9%.
According to WTTC, travel and tourism accounts for 10% of total employment in Indonesia but the figure is considerably higher in the tourism hotspots such as Bali and Lombok. By comparison the Indonesian capital Jakarta, which is a regional commercial centre, has fared much better, with bookings down by just 2.2%.
Indonesia’s most important source market is China, accounting for 14% of all visitors. Prior to the second earthquake, bookings were up 3% on the previous year, and afterwards suffered a 59% flop.
Bookings from Australia, Indonesia’s second most important market, were up 28% before the second quake but they have since plummeted 19% down.
Similar setbacks have been seen in bookings from Hong Kong and Singapore but bookings from India are still 16% up on 2017, although they were 38% up prior to the second quake.
