Bali News

Australian government warning through its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s/DFAT in a travel advisory for their people in Bali viewed by Head of Bali Provincial Transportation Agency Made Santra should be taken seriously by Bali.

All parties including taxi transportation service should take part in maintaining the security. Taxi should keep increasing their service quality. “Here, we did not talk about the unreal thing but the fact is the tourism sector need quality increases if we want to keep exist,” confessed Made Santra in Denpasar, on Thursday (August 12th) yesterday.

He asked for all parties involve refraining themselves. It is due to Bali is a tourism destination island that need security stability and transportation service quality and not a conflict that scared them away. Bali depend its life from tourism. “If Bali is not safe anymore then all taxi driver and all business in Bali would get disturb,” he said.

It is said that the justice team for Bali Provincial Transportation postpone the checking schedule for Surat Peringatan 1 (SP) – Warning Letter – to taxi operator in Bali that should has been done on August 13th, 2010. The checking postponed up to August 17th still, Transportation Agency asked for all parties to keep maintain the security and their service quality.

The checking schedule postponed due to the density of provincial government agenda in preparing 52nd Bali Provincial Anniversary. “We will straightly go to location in order to check the taxi operator after the independent day celebration on August 17th,” he said.

“We want to check how far does the loyalty or implementation of issuing SP1 to the operator. If there is no improvement then they would give them SP2. Until today we still don’t know the taxi operator loyalty toward KM 35,” he said.

Head of Bali Tourism Board (BTB) I.B. Ngurah Wijaya previously stated his understanding the Australian Government anxiety to protect their people. Moreover, there is lot of Australian people who used taxi or car rental during their stay in Bali.

He hopes the government could finish taxi problem in Bali soon. If the problem just left could damage Bali image as world tourism destination. Beside, Bali should has transportation standardization through enforcement of clear rule to protect the consumer especially the tourists who visiting Bali.

“The warming also shall become a suggestion for Bali solving over the problems, which concerned Australian Government,” said Wijaya who is also the owner of Segara Village Hotel in Sanur.

Meanwhile, head of Bali Tourism Agency, I.B. Kade Subhiksu stated for the issue or reaction toward problems happened in Bali need not to be exaggerated. He viewed that Bali condition these days are much better than several times ago. Although, he realized that Bali as the center of tourism in Indonesia still has pretty high sensitivity.

No matter how small does incident or event happened in Bali will attract international world’s attention. All parties in Bali should realize that Bali depending on its tourism sector. “If want the tourism growth well then maintain the security is an absolute way to do,” he asserted.

It is said that Bali is the terrace and window for Indonesia. Thus, we suggest all parties to keep security and convenient in Bali.

Bali Post