I was never entirely enchanted with Bali’s overused sobriquet“Island of the Gods”, even if latterly the term did tend to be used with an ironic inflection. It now seems the phrase has been consigned to the dustbin of history by the powers that be. I was curious to note that in addressing the assembled delegates all the officials from the Indonesian government attending the recently concluded PATA Annual meeting held in Nusa Dua earlier this month and all the PATA officials, uniformly referred to a placed called “Bali, Island of The God”.
Am I imagining things or could it really be that some literalist in government with a penchant for sniffing out pearls of exegetic minutia buried within the tracts of tourist promotion has belatedly decreed that the former phrase does not sit well with the nation’s declared monotheism and that Bali’s offending plural must be lopped off? I do hope not.
I must say the phrase sounds a bit grandiose and rather awkward to my ear. It certainly doesn’t quite run off the tongue in the same way as it’s predecessor. Other officials, who perhaps had difficulty with the new phrase, seemed to prefer “Bali - Island of Peace”, which is altogether happier sounding and quite appropriate in the circumstances.
Anyway, by the second day when all the opening speeches were over, most of the visiting speakers, who may not have been informed about any such silliness, had returned the gods to their traditional place in the scheme of things.
It seems you can’t so readily banish the deities, any more than you can a cliche.
When the Going Was Good.....
This is the third time that Bali has hosted the region’s leading travel event, the Annual PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Assoc.) meeting. The last time was just over ten years ago in 1991.
And what a difference a decade makes!
Back then all was well with the world. Regional economies were surging and the travel industry seemed destined for ever upward growth. For Bali, the only downside was the grumblings of those who wondered what such untrammeled growth would do to the fabric of the Island - and with good reason.
In the past 5 years this rosy picture changed radically and today Bali could scarcely be in a worse situation. Bali has allowed itself to become a one-industry economy, almost totally dependent on tourism and is now paying dearly for such over-specialisation. Daily arrivals are now one quarter what they were a year ago, the percentage of hotel occupancy has gone into single digits, shops and restaurants have closed all over the Island, and hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs or are on reduced working hours.
Beginning in 1997 with the financial meltdown in the area, we have seen tourist arrivals hit by a succession of disasters. The prolonged unrest of Suharto’s departure followed by intercommunal violence in various parts of Indonesia, combined with travel warnings about the haze from forest fires covering large parts of the country and its neighbours made many international visitors think twice about coming to Bali, despite the fact that Bali itself was unaffected by either of these evils. Then came the terror attack in New York on the Twin Towers and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. Concurrently, the travelling public was spooked into staying home by fears of a worldwide terrorism campaign. Next, Bali itself was the target of a terrorist bombing killing just over 200 people, mostly tourists. We then had the excruciatingly extended lead-up to the 2nd Iraqi War and to cap it all we now have the outbreak of SARS, a vicious epidemic affecting the Asian region, our market of last resort.
Oh! And one last thing......
The Indonesian government in its wisdom and to defend national pride, much to the shock and horror of almost everyone in Bali, decides that this is exactly the right time to revoke the visa free status for most visitors and they should now be charged $50.00 a head on entering the country and can only stay for 30 days non-renewable. After a 16-hour flight and an hour’s queue to clear immigration a family of 4 is just going to love queuing up again to pay US$200. Goodbye Bali! Hello, Thailand!
What else can providence possibly have in store for us? Is it any wonder that many Balinese now wonder if there’s any point? That they might just as well pack it all in and go back to growing rice.
Uncle PATA to the Rescue......?
Are things as irredeemably bleak as they seem? They seldom are. People manage to get by somehow. Moreover there is life outside tourism, so some diversification would be no bad thing. The Island is full of talented craftsmen for a start, who can be far better employed than producing oceans of touristic tack, even if some of it is exported (didges to Kakadu anyone?).
Even for Bali’s beleaguered travel industry things could be looking up. The PATA meeting, which was within a whisker of being called off a week before opening because of SARS had 200 delegates cancel and about a third of its speakers opt out. In a gutsy decision PATA management in Bangkok went ahead anyway, expecting a little over 500 delegates to attend. In the event over 970 people came, which would be respectable any year. That says something about the resilience of the travel industry. More to the point, there is invariably a surge in business for the country hosting the Conference, in this case Bali, which is sustained far into the future.
The industry came and saw, not only that Bali was safe, but that it was still an incomparable destination and remarkable value. Given half a chance and central government permitting, things can only get better.
What else can PATA do?
Well it could have a go at those travel advisories for a start!
PATA is going through one of its periodic tectonic shifts at the moment with a new management team in place. In the beginning, over 50 years ago, it was very much an American-driven organisation, which sat in San Francisco. It flexed its adolescent muscles in the mid-70’s as a new guard of Asian industry professionals swept away the last vestiges of the colonial mind-set, knowing exactly how to pitch the style and exotic charms of South East Asia to the developed world. Now the organisation has matured further. A fresh, young and professional full time staff now sits in Bangkok charting the way into the future.
And what a future it could be!
Travel is now the largest and richest industry in the world. And yet it has none of the political influence or lobbying clout of the financial, extraction or pharmaceutical industries. Tourism ministers, in the countries which bother to have them, are very low in the pecking order. They have little scope for independent action and always need the say-so of their more senior colleagues. The Pacific Asia area, which traditionally has been an inbound destination now sends millions of tourists to the Americas and Europe. As China and India build their outbound markets the Pacific Asia area will soon become the biggest generating market for travel worldwide.
So PATA is beginning to sense it’s strength and think about flexing those muscles. Nothing too drastic you understand, but there is a definite movement to clearly identify and express the interests of the travel industry to governments, trading bodies and to make a presence felt in the deliberations of international organisations. A good start to this has been made in making common cause with other powerful international institutions and associations, who have parallel interests. In view of this increasing clout it is good to note that PATA seems to take ever more seriously its role in seeking to ensure tourism is a power for good in the world, rather than a voracious despoiler of landscapes and ravager of traditional lifestyles. Ten years ago the organisation promised to help protect the area’s environment, historic sites and monuments. By and large it hasn’t done a bad job and, most importantly, these matters are now mainstream and firmly on the agenda. Now, they are taking it a step further and actually talking about people, not just places, and the importance of preserving vigorous indigenous cultures as living entities, not just as preserved anthropological curiosities.
Travel Advisories: “Thank You, But.....”
Few things have exercised the countries in SE Asia with significant inbound travel more than to be slapped with a Travel Advisory warning. Even if your country isn’t a direct victim, it doesn’t help you if your neighbour has been. Everyone suffers.
Attempting to address this issue PATA brought together three Ambassadors to Indonesia from Australia, Canada and Holland. They didn’t get very far. Essentially, ever so diplomatically, PATA was told to butt out. As far as these gentlemen were concerned their sole concern was to protect the safety of their citizens. Well, no one can argue with that, but what about using travel advisories as a political tool of coercion? What about trying to have some stardardised criteria for travel warnings? And how about trying to get the facts right? None of the above were addressed by the diplomatic gentlemen. And nor, I suspect, will they until PATA flexes some of those muscles it was talking about. The hopeful news is that PATA has undertaken to start a dialogue going within the industry and with governments and international bodies to try and standardise travel warnings and introduce common levels of risk.
There remains an awful lot of confusion about travel warnings and what they mean. A Travel Advisory is just that - advisory. Governments do not order their citizens to leave a country. You can if you wish ignore them, and thousands do so safely. Where it becomes a lot murkier is the whole question of cancellations and insurance. The travelling public is understandably very confused about this and so I guess is the insurance industry. Nobody seems clear about to what extent insurance is optional, advisable, obligatory and when it can reasonably be denied. Another area where PATA would do well to flex its muscles in Association-to-Association confab.
Last Word on Visas
Various representations were said to have been made by the PATA Board to President Megawati, who opened the PATA meet and said all sorts of other sensible things about tourism, urging her to think again about this. And, as we go to press I hear a senior delegation from Bali has gone to Jakarta to beg the Minister of Justice & Human Rights to reconsider. Since there is a six-month drafting stage before implementation the hope is that it can quietly be deferred until better times.
But whatever the cost and however lame the argument, somebody somewhere thinks it’s a great idea. The only question is why?
