Tourism Under The Volcano

On a broad scale it’s good to be reminded that domestic travel is the key driver of Bali’s tourism market.

Looking at international visitors to the nation, with over 10 million international visitors, this number pales when viewing over 240 million domestic hotel stays a year.

While Australia remains the number one overseas market for Bali, the Chinese in 2015 are the fastest growing source of business.

For hoteliers the allowance of visa free travel from 90 countries this year has been a broad driver of demand in the second part of the year, but have also been hard hit by the volcano.

Australian’s who are headed to Bali over the holiday period are being offered other destinations and hotel occupancy in November has been hit hard by the disruptive events.

Bali’s bulging hotel pipeline is also coming into play and  a knock on effect to growth is water resources are being stretched far and wide.

That said, the island is seeing some sensational new hotels open like the Mandapa Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Ubud and Alila Seminyak who feature as fleet of specially fitted out VW Kombi chill out buses.