Recommendations on Bali Tourism Recovery reviewed

DENPASARA (indo.com): A seminar on tourism in Bali has concluded recently with a call for a more forceful leadership in tourism issues.

Attended by at least 100 tourism managers, the seminar participants demanded that local tourism leaders have more focus and right directions in developing strategies to overcome the various crisis facing the Island of Gods.

The seminar was held at the Bali International Convention Center (BICC) in Nusa Dua, Bali on September 13, 2003.

Sponsored by the Bali Discovery Tours, the meeting jointly led by Bert Van Wallbeek and Stephen Yong, two representatives from PTA headquarter in Bangkok, Thailand also reviewed the recommendations prepared by the Pacific Asia Travel (PATA) Bali Recovery Task Force.

In December of last year, the PATA sent a group of tourism experts to Bali, to review the island's condition in the period following the October terrorist attack and made concrete recommendations for tourism's recovery.

The recommendations include:

• Bring all disparate elements together to follow a common agenda.

• Create an environment for careful planning within which issues of safety and security are addressed and, if necessary, be enforceable by law.

• Establish an integrated crisis management plan in which guidelines and procedures for crisis communication are included.

• Recognize the importance of the aviation sector and work more closely with it, understanding its own specific needs and wants.

• Rebuild the Bali brand through private/public/consumer sectors and with a dedicated destination maker.

• Broaden the Bali brand to encompass culture and heritage.

• Introduce the Bali brand to contemporary market platforms.

• Increase brand awareness through partnership marketing.