The supply of Bali’s hotel rooms now outstrips tourist demand, says a recent report
he supply of Bali’s hotel rooms now outstrips tourist demand, says a recent report.
The report, compiled by Udayana University (UU) and the provincial tourism agency, said that current facilities would be adequate until 2015, when 6.6 million tourists are expected.
Many facilities in Bali are currently unoccupied, including star-rated hotels, low-price hotels and lodges, according to the report, which called for moratorium on new hotel development.
Researchers said it was previously estimated that Bali would require 38,000 hotel rooms by 2015, but this number had actually been reached in late 2005.
The Bali tourism agency said there were 37,000 hotel rooms in Bali at the end of 2007.
“This number is based on our survey, and it excluded villas and apartments, which are currently mushrooming,” researcher and UU tourism research center head Agung Suryawan Wiranatha said recently.
Suryawan said 6.6 million tourists would visit the resort island in 2015 according to the trend power calculation method, adding that even under moderate scenarios with 5 percent growth, tourists in 2015 would top 7.4 million.
Bali needs 38,000 hotel rooms under trend power calculations and 42,000 rooms under moderate growth scenarios, he said.
Suryawan said he was disappointed with the discontinued moratorium on tourist accommodation development that was enacted by Bali’s previous governor Dewa Made Beratha.
“The moratorium has been revoked. The number of rooms has now reached 60,000 units,” he said, adding that the situation had forced hotel operators to compete for customers.
He said the moratorium had been neglected after Bali’s municipal and regency administrations were given authority to issue permits for tourist facility development without provincialadministration approval.
“The administration should stop issuing new permits for star-rated hotels until 2015 because the current number of rooms is enough for the next five years,” Suryawan said.
Bali has an excess of tourist vehicles, including busses with more than 18 seats, microbuses and rental cars.
There are currently 676 buses with more than 18 seats in Bali, surpassing a need that was estimated to be 655 by 2015.
“The number of rental cars will be sufficient until 2020,” Suryawan said.
Bali has 211 8-12 seat microbuses and will need 1,400, he said.
Tourism agency head IB Kade Subikshu said construction of new star-rated hotels in Denpasar and Badung should have been halted.
“Development should be shifted to other regencies, such as Karangasem,” he said.
He said there were at least 150 star-rated hotels and more than 2,000 low-priced hotels and
lodges, adding that the number is enough.
However, he said, the agency has no authority to stop development since it was the policy of regional administrations.
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