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Bali’s tourism steady despite quake
The earthquake has yet to significantly affect tourism, especially regarding tourists’ plans to stay here and on future arrivals, tourist operators have said
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he earthquake has yet to significantly affect tourism, especially regarding tourists’ plans to stay here and on future arrivals, tourist operators have said.
There has not been any information to indicate a sudden exodus or arrival cancelations; however, some tourists moved to accommodation facilities that they considered safer, said Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association.
“There are no reports yet on departures or cancelations. Some guests moved to other hotels because they were panicked.
Generally, everything has returned to normal,” Wijaya said, adding that only one tourist was reported to have suffered a sprained leg from the quake.
Perry Markus, secretary of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said there had not been any update as of Friday on major damage at hotels.
There was minor damage at some hotels in Kuta and Nusa Dua, such as broken roofs, but this had not caused injury to guests staying in the establishments.
Perry said guests had left some high-rise hotels and condominiums to move to safer premises.
To ensure guests’ convenience, his association called on all hotels to obey the standard operating procedures in handling earthquake situations.
“We had held a tsunami drill before, and we hoped that all hotels would adhere to the procedure at times of natural disaster, including how an evacuation should be carried out.” The magnitude-6.8 earthquake that shook Bali on Thursday injured 81 people, but no fatalities were reported.
Bali’s Disaster Management Center recorded that out of the 81 injured victims, only eight had to undergo medical treatment at hospitals.
The center also recorded a total of 39 damaged buildings, of which 16 were schools, four places of worship, seven offices, three medical facilities (hospitals and a community health center), two shops and seven houses.
“The number of damaged buildings might be greater, because some were unreported,” said the center’s head, Anom Agustina.
The buildings reported as suffering damage were located in six regencies: Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, Bangli, Tabanan and Jembrana. Three other regencies — Buleleng, Klungkung and Karangasem — did not report any damage.
As of Friday, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency had recorded 18 aftershocks, registering magnitude-3 on the Richter scale, following the major quake on Thursday.
“The aftershocks are low intensity. That’s why most people may not feel them,” said agency spokesman, Endro Tjahjono.
He added that he regretted the hoax messages that were circulating among the public via BlackBerry Messenger, SMS and social network sites saying there would be another major earthquake of 7.9 on the Richter scale, and that the tsunami early warning system alarm in Kuta was switched on.
“Those are only hoax messages. We have yet to be able to predict earthquakes,” he confirmed.
