In Reply to: UK Travel Advice Changed posted by tigress on Wednesday, 7. July 2004 at 17:46 Bali Time:
The United Kingdom Foreign Office changed its travel advisory July 6, 2004, no longer recommending against non-essential travel to Indonesia and Bali. The decision was a direct result of the travel advisory system review, lead by UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. In a June 22 published statement, Straw said travel advisories must balance between danger and disruption, the latter being terrorists' goal. "The public will be better served if such warnings are used more sparingly," when intelligence-based terrorist threats pose extreme and imminent danger, his statement said.
BHA lobbied the British Embassy in Indonesia and monitored communications on this sensitive issue, submitting input and comments at Straw's request for the White Paper on Travel Advisories he prepared earlier this year.
The UK market historically has ranked fourth in terms of total international arrivals to Bali, behind Australia, Japan and Taiwan. Bali Tourism Authority statistics note that in the year 2000, 107,181 Britons visited Bali, the fourth largest group of nationals (7.6 percent of all international arrivals to Bali). In 2001, that increased 8 percent to 116,323. The 17 percent drop in 2002 to 96,806 UK arrivals was a direct reflection of the terrorist bombings in New York and Bali. And, due to continued negative travel advisories and inability for travel agents to obtain insurance when sending visitors to Bali, UK arrivals further dropped 48 percent in 2003 to 50,043 (5 percent of all international arrivals to Bali).
To emphasize the importance of this market in "normal" times, UK arrivals were 40 percent higher than arrivals from the whole of ASEAN in 2002, and were 113 percent higher in 2001. In 2004's first quarter, Britons accounted for only 3.8 percent of international arrivals to Bali. Since the average stay for the UK market is longer than the top three arrivals (Japan, Australia and Taiwan), the revenue generation from this market makes it a leader. Obviously, we are excited to welcome their return!" With the lifting of the UK travel advisory, we now hope other countries with similar advise will follow suit; namely Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US