A strong start to a potentially troubled year

The National News Agency Antara reports that total foreign tourists arrivals to Bali in February totaled 139,282.

While these are preliminary figures awaiting a final and detailed summary of arrivals for February from the Bali Immigration authorities, these numbers, if correct, indicate:

• Over time, foreign tourist arrivals may be softening somewhat.

• February 2009 arrivals at 139,282 are -10.23 percent behind arrivals for the same month in 2008 (155,153).

• Building on January 2009’s record performance (164,643), the cumulative arrivals for January-February 2009 (303,925) are still the strongest start to any year in the history of Bali tourism and a 3.01 percent improvement over the same two-month period one year before. January-February in 2008 totaled 295,025 arrivals.

Most observers expect foreign tourist arrivals to continue on a downward trend as the current year progresses with many hotels reporting relatively quiet business trends during the month of March.