Jakarta, March 24 (Antara) - Indonesia's national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is going all out to fly international tourists, particularly from India, China, and others countries, as part of its effort to help boost the country's tourism.
China and India are the second and third largest foreign tourist supplier countries to Indonesia after Australia. As Bali is Indonesia¿s popular tourist resort island, Garuda Indonesia is seeking direct flights from Denpasar (provincial capital of Bali) to other parts of China and India.
For example, Garuda will increase the frequency of its direct flight for the Shanghai-Denpasar route of China starting from May 2, 2018, and Mumbai-Denpasar route of India starting from April 23, 2018.
The flights will be serviced twice a week, namely Monday and Thursday at 15:40 local time, with a flight time of about seven hours. The state-owned carrier plans to increase the schedule to thrice a week after the inaugural flight in May 2018.
The type of aircraft that will be used to serve the potential route is Airbus A-330 series 200, which can accommodate hundreds of business and economy class passengers.
Indian Consulate General in Denpasar is optimistic that the Mumbai-Bali direct flights served by Garuda Indonesia will boost tourist visits from India to the Indonesian tourist resort island province.
"This (direct flight) is a long-awaited demand, especially of Indian tourists," Indian Consul General, Sunil Babu, remarked in Denpasar, Bali, on Saturday.
His side welcomed the national flag carrier airline's move to capture the growing market developing today. "The market is already available, and I am glad Garuda has taken the first step to reach the market," he revealed.
The senior diplomat noted that the average visit of Indian tourists from India to Bali is about 800 people per day. He even mentioned that as late as last year, Bali's tourism had been affected, and tourist visits had declined last year due to the explosion of Mount Agung. Yet, tourists from India to the province, which is also called the Island of Gods, had even increased.
Thus, he also expected Garuda to open a daily flight linking Bali with India. "I am optimistic that this flight will undoubtedly smoothen the flow of Indian tourists. The similar culture would make them more interested in visiting Bali," Babu added.
Bali's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) noted that the number of Indian tourists visiting Bali during 2017 was recorded at 272,761 people, up 45.59 percent compared to the previous year.
Indian tourists rank third after China and Australia, contributing 4.79 percent of total 5.69 million people to Bali during 2017.
Besides that, Garuda Indonesia will also increase its direct flights from Shanghai to Denpasar.
Garuda operates one flight from Shanghai to Jakarta every week, while there are three flights per week to Denpasar.
But there is now an upward trend in the arrival of Chinese tourists from Shanghai to Bali. Witnessing the positive trend in Chinese tourist arrivals, Garuda will operate flights in the Shanghai-Denpasar route once a day beginning from May 2, 2018.
Starting January 29, 2018, Garuda has opened a new route from Chengzhou to Denpasar. Shortly before, the state-owned airline also opened the route from Xi'an to Denpasar. These new routes complement Garuda's regular flights from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu to Jakarta and Bali.
In addition to the regular flight routes, Garuda also serves charter flights from various cities in China to Bali and several tourist destinations in Indonesia.
The positive trend can be seen in terms of Chinese tourist departures from Shanghai to Bali on Garuda Indonesia flights.
"The flow of tourists from China has gradually shown an increase," Deputy Director of PT Garuda Indonesia in China, Dharmawan J. Hendrata, informed Antara in Shanghai on Friday (March 23).
He noted that since the start of the month, the flight occupancy rate from Shanghai to Denpasar, Bali, had averaged between 70 and 72 percent. "Last year's flight occupancy rate was not as high as now. The working days have started in March after the Imlek (Chinese) holiday," he stated.
In January 2018, the flight occupancy rate was far lower than that recorded in the same period in the previous years. "The impact of the eruption of Mount Agung is still being felt, as some Chinese tourists are yet reluctant to visit Bali," he remarked.
However, starting February 2018, during the Lunar New Year holiday, a surge was witnessed in passengers on Garuda flights from Shanghai.
This year, the Ministry of Tourism has targeted to attract three million tourists from the Chinese mainland. The target was higher than last year's two million tourists. However, the achievement missed the target of 2.5 million Chinese tourists.
The target was not achieved, as Gunung Agung in Karangasem District of Bali erupted and led to the forced closure of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport in Kuta, Badung District.
Chinese were the largest in number of foreign tourists visiting Bali, reaching 1.3 million, followed by Australians at 1.09 million, and Indians at 272,000 in 2017.***1***
(A014/INE)EDITED BY INE/H-YH(T.A014/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 24-03-2018 17:45 |
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