EUROPEAN TOURISTS BEGIN CANCELING VISITS TO BALI

Denpasar, Bali, Nov 17 (ANTARA) - Many international tourists, including Europeans, have began canceling room orders they have booked for year-end holidays due to global financial crisis, a tourist industry operator said.

"We have received a report that European tourists have also begun canceling their rooms they have booked for year-end holidays," Executive Director of Bali Hotels Association (BHA), Djinaldi Gosana, said Sunday.
He said that the cancellation by European tourists of their visits to Bali followed travel bureaus which have also canceled the planned visits of Korean and other countries' tourists.
Besides financial crisis, the cancellation of the foreign tourist visits was also caused by travel advisories issued by their respective governments, he said.
Gosana hoped that the cancellation of foreign tourist visits to Bali would not continue to increase because it would significantly affect Bali's tourism industry.
He said that actually the rate of rooms already ordered in three, four and five star-rated hotels for 2008 year-end holidays in Bali was relatively hight.
Even on certain days it was difficult for visitors to obtain rooms, particularly when there were international meetings and conferences which invited a large number of participants, he said.
BHA, which grouped 85 of the 110 four and five star-rated hotels in Bali, is now studying data on foreign tourist arrivals to compare the number of visits in 2007 and in 2008