Executions Of Australian Citizens In Indonesia Is ‘Unlikely’ To Change The Holidaying Scenario In Bali

While major travel agents in Australia are reportedly predicting a decline in their citizens choosing Bali as a travel destination, at least in the next few months, Australian-based airline Qantas and travel booking website Webjet are of opinion that travellers are still keen to go to Indonesia, Bali in particular.

The National Schoolies website already announced that its 50,000 users won’t have access to their site to book trips to the holiday island. Following the executions of the Bali Nine alleged kingpins Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran overnight, Australian government decided to withdraw its ambassador to Indonesia. At the same time, Webjet offered a different view, it said, the demand for plane tickets to Bali from Australia had gone up by 42 percent over the last four weeks compared with the same period a year ago.

Even as Australia’s Foreign Minister mentioned earlier that the country might be forced to boycott Indonesia if the executions of the convicted drug dealers went ahead, the strong demand continues. The chief executive of Qantas, Alan Joyce said the airline had not experienced any of its customers boycotting Indonesia. "It's a personal decision what people decide to do and how people accept their views. Some people are obviously annoyed at the [Indonesian] government's decisions. [But] there are a lot of people that are not upset with the people of Indonesia," said Mr. Joyce on the sidelines of a National Press Club luncheon in Canberra.

Although Mr. Joyce did mention that the company would closely monitor whether the demand of flights to Indonesia in the times to come, at present, they don’t see the executions impacting their business.

Meanwhile, Webjet chief executive John Guscic said, "Whenever there has been a political event historically, if there is a period of suppressed bookings, it picks up very quickly and reverts to the underlying performance of the market." He also pointed out that though the Bali Nine executions were widely covered, there is no sign of it impacting the bookings for Bali.

Whether or not Indonesia remains one of the favourite holiday destinations for Australians, the manner in which Indonesia pursued the executions of the convicted drug felons, is considered cruel and inhumane by the rest of the world.

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