Bali Fixated on 4.5 mn Tourists in 2023

Asean News Published 11 months ago on 21 April 2023 | Author TIN Media
BALI:

Despite the postponement of the U-20 World Cup in Bali and the rest of Indonesia, the Bali Provincial Tourism Service (Dispar) is optimistic that the goal of 4.5 million foreign visitors in 2023 will be met.

The head of Bali's tourism department, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, was quoted by the state news agency Antara as saying: "Yes, we are optimistic that the target of 4.5 million foreign tourists can be met (even) without the hosting of the World Cup."

Tjok Bagus acknowledged that hosting the U-20 World Cup would only have improved the government's capacity to boost tourism at a meeting at the Dispar Office in Denpasar. Approximately 331,912 international visitors arrived in Bali in January 2023, and tourism officials are still on their current pace to meet their 4.5 million targets.

While the U-20 World Cup draws were scheduled to take place on March 31, 2023, World Cup Play in Bali's I Wayan Dipta Stadium would have had a good impact on free promotion by educating sports fans throughout the world about Bali as a tourist destination.

"Bali has a lot of events, and we hope that there will be even more events in 2023, whether it's sports tourism or MICE; of course, there are also cultural and regular and other events related to tourism itself," said Tjok Bagus.

Tjok Bagus remarked that if one significant international event were to be postponed, it would surely affect the tourism industry, at the very least the lodging industry. The head of tourism in Denpasar claimed that since Indonesia's hosting of the U-20 World Cup was canceled, his office has not received any concerns from the travel and tourism industry regarding the removal of Cup competition from Bali.

The committee and the football teams will coordinate in advance with the Bali Provincial Government about price support for hotels as an alternative source of income, such as in the second round of the 2022 League 1 Match.

However, no official request for this help has yet been made to Bali.