Head of Bali’s Tourism Office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, predicts a rise in the number of tourists during the Eid holiday period in 2025, or Eid al-Fitr 1446 Hijri. He stated that tourist visits to Bali this year are expected to be higher compared to the previous year.
“It may be bigger than before, perhaps 10-20 percent more compared to last year’s Eid,” said Tjok Pemayun, as quoted by Antara on Thursday (March 6).
The increase in visits is expected to be dominated by domestic tourists, as the Eid holiday marks the peak tourist season for local visitors, while international tourist arrivals are still in the low season period.
Tjok Pemayun added that the surge in domestic tourists is expected to begin seven days before Eid. This will also impact hotel occupancy rates.
According to Kumparan, “By seven days before Eid, they will already be arriving in Bali, and hotel occupancy could reach 60-70 percent,” he said.
Bali’s Tourism Still Considered to be in Recovery
Although optimistic about the increase in tourist visits in March, Tjok Pemayun acknowledged that Bali’s tourism has not fully recovered, particularly in terms of domestic tourists.
“Yes, one of the issues is the price of airline tickets, which still doesn’t meet expectations. Secondly, there’s the impact of the extreme weather we experienced,” he said.
For this reason, he hopes that there will be policies to reduce ticket prices so that more domestic tourists will visit Bali during the 2025 Eid holidays.
According to data from the Airport Authority of Region IV, during the 2024 Eid Transport Post, 1,059,069 passengers, both domestic and international, traveled through Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali.
This figure represents a 6 percent increase compared to Eid 2023, which recorded 998,521 passengers.
The projection for the 2025 Eid holidays shows a 10% increase in the number of domestic tourists to Bali compared to 2024 Eid, which recorded 171,626 domestic tourists, the majority of whom traveled through Ngurah Rai International Airport.
Tjok Pemayun explained that the arrival of domestic tourists will be divided into two phases: before and after Eid.
Hotel Occupancy Expected to Reach 70%
Reported from Balibisnis, hotel occupancy during the Eid holidays is expected to reach 70%, even though international tourist visits are still low. The high season for international tourists is expected to begin from July to September, so the long holiday in the first quarter of 2025 could contribute to hotel occupancy rates.
For reference, domestic tourist visits to Bali in 2024 reached 9.6 million people. This figure is still lower compared to 2019, before the pandemic, which recorded 10.5 million domestic tourists.
Meanwhile, international tourist visits in 2024 reached 6.4 million, surpassing the 2019 pre-pandemic total of 6.25 million tourists.
In the future, Bali faces the challenge of increasing domestic tourist visits, especially with the change in policies in other regions, such as the West Java Governor’s policy banning students from study tours outside West Java, including to Bali.
Tjok Pemayun previously mentioned that he is not overly concerned about this policy, as there are still many other tourist segments that can be attracted to Bali.
Sources : Kumparan, BaliBisnis
Image : via AntaraNews//Nyoman Hendra Wibowo
