I was stunned to see so many Australians sunning themselves in Bali’s resorts

International outbound tourism on a role
Tuesday, 7 September 2010

With having just returned from Indonesia and in the context of this article Bali, I was stunned to see so many Australians sunning themselves in Bali’s resorts and at all levels from backpackers to six and more star luxury.

Aussies and especially Western Australian’s were everywhere in Bali, with the leaders of Bali’s tourism industry telling me that Australia was now by far the biggest market for Bali, having trounced Japan and hoteliers also telling me that they were continually running at 100% occupancy and with strong yields and rev par.

Over in Fiji, Tourism Fiji reports that for the third month running Fiji’s international tourist arrival numbers have broken new ground with figures released by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics showing the destination set a new record in June of just under 56,000 visitors, easily surpassing the previous highest ever visitor arrival figure and four-year record set in June 2006, when Fiji welcomed 52,795 international arrivals.

So what has happened to cause such a boom in travel to both Fiji and Bali, our closest “sun” holiday destinations?

Without doubt the strength of the Australian dollar is a major factor, with packages to both destinations offering better value than ever, with in Fiji’s case the 20% devaluation of the Fijian dollar being another major factor and in Bali’s case the very low cost of all those holiday add ons like attractions, drinks and food being amazingly cheap aka great value!

With Fiji only around three hours from Australia’s east coast and Bali just over 3hrs from Australia’s west coast there are amazing similarities in the boom to both destinations, with the quality of product and service and of course value for money, in both destinations being the key and significant factors in why so many Aussies are flocking to both and why not!

The sad casualty in all this is Australian domestic tourism, which is still struggling and languishing, suffering from high costs and what is increasingly becoming obvious lacklustre service, poor quality product and also providing poor value for money.

For Aussies making a decision on where to spend their hard earned cash, looking and comparing how much a holiday in Bali or Fiji costs compared to one in Australia, sadly for Australia, there is no comparison, with destinations like Bali and Fiji winning hands down and it is time the Australian tourism industry and whichever Government we end up with, woke up to that reality!

In the meantime, Australian tourism operators will continue to struggle while dealing with the astronomic cost of doing business in Australia, for example, employing staff on penalty rates on weekends and holidays and also all that administration our Governments have created for small business to have to deal with – all at a cost to the business and the consumer – with the price at the moment being very high.

Industry Insider Commentary and Opinion by e-Travel Blackboard’s Special Correspondent John Alwyn-Jones