Bali awaits Indian wave
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By Anil Mathur
Bali expects to see more Indian visitors next year when direct air links are launched between India and the Indonesian island.
At present, the absence of direct access hinders the growth of traffic between the two, who have long, cultural and ethnic links.
In 2006, about 12,800 Indians visited the many attractions of Bali, and the figure this year has already gone beyond 17,000 at end October.
In 2005, less than 7,000 Indians went to Bali.
A strong Bali travel team was in India recently, visiting cities to promote greater travel. Six travel agents and five hotels from Bali were at the road show, headed by Nyoman Waedawan, head of tourism promotion division at the Bali Government Tourism Office, and Ketut Ardana, from the travel agents association and Bali Tourism Board.
Puneet Malhotra, of Queen’s Tandoor Indian restaurant in Bali, said that he expected the demand and supply mismatch to be filled, now that there was more awareness of Bali in India.
The industry leaders assured that security concerns have been taken care of in Bali. Malhotra said that Bollywood movies set in Bali, honeymoon and wedding traffic were major contributors to the increase in traffic from India.
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