Hotels in Bali are reporting they are quickly becoming fully booked for the upcoming long weekend which culminates in the Chinese lunar New Year next Monday.
Ida Ayu Apranti Dewi, a public relations manager at Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, Denpasar, said the fi ve-star hotel was fully booked from Jan. 23 until the end of the month.
"The room occupancy rate for those dates is 90 percent, with the majority of guests coming from Asian countries and European countries and around 15 percent locals," she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She said the 566 room hotel would stage a number of cultural performances, including a Chinese dragon dance blended with a traditional Balinese dance.
"It is in Bali, so we will give the dragon dance a Balinese infl uence," she said, adding that the hotel would add to its menu traditional Chinese food, including rice cakes.
Aulianty Fellina, marketing communications manager at Hard Rock Bali Hotel, said the hotel was offering promotional deals that included cultural festivities for the long weekend to fi ll up its 418 rooms. The hotel's occupancy rate reached 90 percent last Monday, she said.
Up market small hotels and nonstar hotels in the Kuta area were also expected to benefi t from the long weekend.
Sari Mulyani, a receptionist at Bali Sumer Hotel on Jl. Pantai Kuta said 61 percent of rooms had been booked for the weekend.
"Local guests, especially from Jakarta, are dominating reservations.
The occupancy rate is even higher than it was during the Christmas holidays, when it only reached 80 percent," she said.
She said her hotel would not stage New Year's festivities as management was expecting the majority of the hotel's guests to celebrate the coming of the Year of the Ox at large restaurants or cafes in the area that were putting on special events.
Gede Erma, a receptionist at Fourteen Roses Beach hotel, on the same street, said the hotel was fully booked for the long weekend, but added that the hotel was otherwise suffering from a shortage of guests.
The Bali Police reported that Bali had received as of Tuesday a total of 43,557 tourists this year, 60 percent of them foreign nationals.
It said of the amount, 7,076 were Australians - the largest group, followed by 4,573 Americans and 2,426 Dutch.
The vast majority of tourists stay in Denpasar, with Badung and Gianyar regencies the next most popular. Of the total number of tourists received so far this year, none declared their destinations were in Buleleng or Karangasem regencies.
