Local media have been reporting the concerns of Bali tour operators who quote one instance where mainland Chinese travellers were paying as little Rp. 600,000 (US$42) for which they received round trip airfare from China to Bali, meals and hotel nights covering five days and four nights.
Hotel and tour operators in Bali are becoming increasingly frustrated by the spate of low-cost, low quality holiday packages being sold in the mainland Chinese market.
Local media have been reporting the concerns of Bali tour operators who quote one instance where mainland Chinese travellers were paying as little Rp. 600,000 (US$42) for which they received round trip airfare from China to Bali, meals and hotel nights covering five days and four nights.
Elsye Deliana, chairperson of the Indonesian Association of Travel Agents (ASITA) Chinese Market Committee, quoted by Radar Bali, said, “What my question becomes, how prices can become so cheap? Our term for such packages is a ‘zero tour fee.’”
Inbound operators say the great number of Chinese visitors generated by these low cost travel packages brings a whole range of additional problems that require government action. These include the presence of unlicensed illegal guides; pre-wedding photographers working illegally on tourist visas; and networked shopping stops where overpriced merchandise subsidises the low cost tour packages.
Herry Sudiarto, chairman of the ASITA Committee for Mainland Chinese Tourists, is calling on the government to take action. “The government has to have the courage to take firm steps to improve Bali. If it is allowed to go on like this, things will only get worse. Strong regulations must be put in place to protect legal operations and bring illegal operators to justice,” he said.
NusaBali reports that tourism practitioners in Bali are complaining that an international criminal syndicate is working to take control of mainland Chinese inbound travel to Bali through “coercion and monopolistic market practice”.
Member of Commission II of the Bali House of Representatives (DPRD-Bali), AA Ngurah Adhi Ardhana, alleges a network of Chinese businesses are taking control of travel agent services, accommodation booking, restaurant sales, and even the shopping utilised by mainland Chinese visitors to Bali.
“These efforts to monopolise all expenditures are usually done by China-based business that have ‘borrowed’ the name of a local business person or nominee to cover their activities,” he said.
In Ardhana’s opinion, all legal measures have been weakly enforced against local agencies caught in the nominee business practice of surrendering control of their company to a “behind-the-scenes” foreign owner.
Ardhana said Chinese breaking the law in Bali should be brought before the law in Indonesia so supplementary sanctions could be imposed once the offenders return to China.