Most hotels in Bali are fully booked for the holiday period in late September-early October, including during the Idul Fitri celebration on Oct. 1 and 2, a hotel executive said Wednesday.

IB Gede Sidharta Putra, who manages Griya Santrian Hotel in Sanur, said a number of locals had expressed disappointment as they could not get rooms at his hotel at short notice.

Sidharta Putra, popularly known as Gusde, said his hotel, which has 100 rooms, was fully booked until the end of October. Other hotels have reported similar occupancy rates.

Gusde said the substantial rise in the number of guests in Bali hotels had been observed since last year, and that in the Sanur beach resort area the hotel occupancy rate had been relatively stable since January this year.

The number of tourists to Bali is expected to fall slightly in November, but bounce back in the second week of December and hold in January next year, he said.

Gusde, who is also head of the Sanur Development Foundation, said most of those staying in his Santrian hotels are returning guests from Europe.

“About 50 percent to 60 percent of our guests are from Europe, who mostly stay here for an average of two weeks. But at the moment we are being flooded by tourists from Australia,” he said.

Head of the Bali Tourism Office I Gede Nurjaya confirmed Gusde’s remarks, saying other hotels in Kuta, Jimbaran and Nusa Dua areas, the preferred destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists, have also experienced overbooking.

As of September, the number of domestic tourists to Bali this year had reached 3 million, which is an average of 6,300 per day, an increase of about 35 percent from the corresponding period

last year.

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