In Reply to: how many of there are you. posted by cinta on Wednesday, 6. September 2006 at 22:23 Bali Time:
Hi Jacinta...thank you so much for your kind gesture. At this point it looks as though only I will be doing the Bali thing. She who must be obeyed heads off to China in early October and is gone for almost a month. November and December will be busy work months for me, so if I'm to go anywhere this year I must do it before Sue leaves for China.
I guess my disappointment is more with the limitations that the closure of the Adelaide flights have created. I've since learnt that that this particular flight - and the one I return on is via Sydney. Just why Garuda could not loop Adelaide into that flight is a mystery - even if it was only one flight per week. At least that way they would not have completely abandoned the Adelaide Market.
It's a bit like the chicken and the egg - make it harder to get there and consumers take you off the list. Falling interest equals falling profits. So do you try to stimulate market interest by maintaining accessibility or do you reduce costs and try to ride it out till things improve? But if you close the doors will the market eventually forget you? Quite probably.
I'm told that more than anywhere else in Oz, Adelaide has lost interest in Bali as a holiday destination. The eastern states are far from hot to trot but they at east sustainable. Not surprisingly, Perth is going along quite well...proof positive that consumer access to flights is a key factor in destination appeal.
For the time being I believe Garuda may have closed its Adelaide office - or at the very least, downsized it to a one person show.
I guess the simplest thing for me to do is just get over it and go down to Melbourne the night before; enjoy a night's stay in one of airport hotels and have a damn good time in Bali when I get there! Cheers - Kevin