INDONESIA’S tourism chiefs have attempted to play down the recent religious-inspired riots on the holiday island of Lombok by insisting that they would not deter people from going to visit the destination.
Tourists had to be evacuated from Lombok in January after the trouble spread to the island’s main beach resort of Senggigi, but Indonesia’s director-general of tourism I Gede Ardika said business had since returned to normal.
Several British tour operators have started to take bookings for Lombok for travel from the end of this month but the UK Foreign Office is continuing to advise against travel to the island.
Premier Holidays director Rob Haynes said: “Obviously we are reviewing the situation constantly but it does seem as though the situation on the island is much calmer now and things are beginning to get back to normal.
“We are hoping to be able to take people back to Lombok soon, but if the situation doesn’t improve we will give people the option of cancelling or switching to another destination.”
Operators admit bookings to the nearby island of Bali, Indonesia’s main holiday destination, have been hit by the troubles in Lombok but most operators are not expecting the riots to have any long-term effect.
“People have short memories and I don’t think this will have a big impact on business to Bali,” added Haynes.
The vast majority of visitors to Indonesia end up in Bali but Ardika said the government was trying to develop a cruising industry to spread tourism to other islands in the archipelago.
“This will require only a small amount of investment in new infrastructure but it will bring visitors to the remote areas,” said Ardika.
After failing to persuade Caribbean cruise operators to move into the region, the Indonesian government is now attempting to woo Mediterranean cruise lines to the destination.
“We have set up a working party to look into how we can develop marine tourism, which will be spearheaded by cruising,” he added.