DENPASAR

After terror tragedy in Paris, France, hopefully it will not make European tourist arrivals to Bali degrading. But it is still being studied by relevant parties.

“The lower visit of European tourust could be the impact to Bali , people will think twice to go, how if it is not safe,” said governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika on Monday.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjokorda Bagus Pemayun said, until now there has been no definitive data, on the impact resulting from the events in Paris.

Moreover, he said French is at number seven as the largest tourist contributor to Bali.

“We had anticipated with such efforts, one of which we coordinate with businesses practitioners. Especially France become number seven largest tourist contributor to Bali until October 2015, “he said.

Data from Bali Provincial Tourism Office, tourists visit  from France to October 2015 was 115 288, it increased from October last year that was 113 982.

As for the number of tourists coming to Bali until this year as many as 3,360,074 people, increase from last year in the same month as many as 3,122,392 people.

Countries with the number of tourist arrivals to Bali from the largest are Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, the UK, South Korea, France, Singapore, Taiwan, the US, Germany, India, and Netherlands.

–Decreasing Tourist–
Meanwhile, Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Bali predicted a decline in tourist arrivals from Europe about 5% to 10% as a result of terror that occurred in France.

Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, Bali PHRI chairman said, specifically  foreign tourists visiting from France is not too high to Bali, but when viewed as a whole from Europe it is certainly large enough.

“We understand their condition and condolences over the tragedy. We expect the impact on tourism in Bali is not the whole year, “he said in Denpasar on Monday.

He stated so far it has not received information about the cancellation, but naturally such cancellation will really happen.

“During this time we are indeed pursuing the European market, in addition to the Asia Pacific market. We kept trying to convince them that Bali or Indonesia is still worth visiting and can still be enjoyed by tourism, “he said.

It said that as long as Indonesia is a country that is relatively safe and conflicts between groups is no longer exist in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, I Ketut Ardana, Chairman of Association of Indonesian Travel (Asita) Bali said, tourism is the main enemy of unsafe conditions because tourists would be concerned in making a journey.

“We hope that Bali security must be tightened again, the examination should be earnestly carried out mainly in the crowded center, tourism center, as well as at the entrance of Bali,” he explained.

He added that tourist arrivals will decrease, but it is not known exactly how much of the decline.