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Fewer Australians booking Bali holidays: tourist operators

Xinhua, February 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australians are shying away from Indonesia's Bali as their holiday destination of choice, due to the "boycott Bali" campaign gaining momentum on social media.

Tourist operators and travel agencies said on Thursday that the number of Australians booking Bali holidays had already dropped off noticeably in the wake of the Indonesian government's decision to proceed with the execution of two Australians charged with drug- smuggling offenses.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are on death row in Bali for their role, with seven other people, in a drug-smuggling operation that occurred in 2005.

A spokeswoman for travel aggregator, Cheapflights, told News Ltd on Thursday that the number of searches for Bali holidays had already drastically reduced after Foreign Minister Julie Bishop condemned Indonesian officials for not granting clemency to Chan and Sukumaran.

Bishop said last week Australian travelers would "register their deep disapproval (of the executions) including by making decisions about where they wished to holiday".

The social media campaign has also condemned low-cost airline Jetstar for promoting cheap fares to Bali, and Twitter users have asked others to boycott the airline.

Senior lecturer in internet studies at Perth's Curtin University, Tama Leaver, told News.com.au that the strong and sudden nature of the campaign would certainly affect short-term holiday numbers for the Indonesian island, but whether it will last rests on the executions going ahead.

"The social media backlash certainly has the ability to be in people's faces when they're thinking about where they go next, particularly when you consider how many travel bookings are made online," he said.

"It will depend on whether the executions happen or not, as to how long the campaign is sustained.

"But I would be surprised if there wasn't a notable downturn."

Leaver said other Southeast Asian holiday destinations had the most to gain from the backlash, due to the negligible difference in cost to travelling to other destinations.

"There isn't a huge financial difference between going to Bali and going to Thailand, and strategic operators will probably offer cheap deals to other places," he said. Endi