T

he Bali chapter of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) deeply regretted a recent brawl in the Bounty bar in Kuta that caused the death of a New Zealand tourist.

The brawl allegedly started when the victim, Sean Keith William Headifen, 22, got angry and threw his glass at a bartender because the latter refused to exchange his voucher for a drink, at dawn on Sunday.

The furious bartender threw a jar at the victim's head, before a security officer tried to forcibly remove the victim from the bar and a guest beat him up outside the bar. The victim's wife brought him back to their hotel but her husband died several hours later.

"Drunk guests causing a fuss in bars is a common thing. Such a risk should have been well anticipated with clear procedures," PHRI chairman Tjokorda Oka Ardhana Sukawati told The Jakarta Post by phone on Friday.

He said security guards and employees in bars should always remember that guests were king, so they had to treat them with respect.

He said it was important that the bar management ensured that employees knew what to do in such a situation to prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

The Badung Tourism Agency held a meeting with a number of bar and discotheque managers in response to the brawl on Thursday.

The managers were reminded to recruit well-trained security guards and employees. However, the agency admitted it could not take stronger measures against Bounty because the bar's permit was issued by the central government.