Asia Pacific tourism leaders meeting in the Malaysian capital condemned the cowardly bombing of tourists and local people in Bali, Indonesia.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Chairman, Mr Nobutaka Ishikure, speaking during the association’s Board of Directors meeting in Kuala Lumpur said: “The travel industry and everyone who supports tourism as a force for peace and understanding wholeheartedly condemn this terrorist outrage.”

He added: “At this sad hour, all of us stand behind the people of Indonesia who have recently done so much to improve security and bring back tourism to Bali. We offer our full support to the Indonesian people and thank their authorities for responding quickly to this tragedy.”

Mr Thamrin Bachri, Director General of Marketing, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Indonesia, and member of the PATA Board of Directors, said: “Indonesia condemns in the strongest terms this senseless attack. Our government will do what it can to return the situation to normal as soon as possible.”

PATA Vice President, Mr Peter Semone will fly to Bali today to assess the full impact of this tragic event and help coordinate the tourism industry response.

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Bali Tourism Fact File (source: PATA):

Bali is Indonesia’s largest single destination for foreign visitors. In 2004, the island registered 1,525,994 international arrivals, up by 3.2% from its previous record set in 2000.

The island has a market share of 29% of all arrivals to Indonesia – 44% if registered hotel accommodation is used as the criteria.

Bali’s five top source markets in 2004 were Japan (21.29% of all international visitor arrivals), Australia (18.01%), Taiwan (12.06%), Korea (4.75%) and Singapore (4.71%).

Europe represented 21.3% and North America 4.64% of all arrivals in 2004.

From January to July 2005, the island continued to attract an increasing number of visitors with 887,450 international arrivals recorded at Bali Ngurah Rai International airport, up by 6.38% compared to the same period last year.

Bali has over 130 hotels with close to 20,000 rooms. The airport is the country’s third busiest after Jakarta and Surabaya and received over six million passengers last year.