Bali fights to regain tourists

Bali fights to regain tourists

Bali marked six months since the Kuta bombing on Saturday

A major tourism conference begins on Bali on Monday as the Indonesian island tries to lure back visitors, six months after a terror bombing killed 202 people.

More than 900 delegates from 54 countries will attend the Pacific Asia Travel Association's four-day annual conference, organisers say, despite concerns over the spread of the Sars virus.

Bali's tourism trade was devastated in the wake of the bombing in the town of Kuta on 12 October last year.

Foreign visitors are also down due to fears over Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome which has infected more than 3,000 people and killed more than 120 across the world since it appeared in southern Chinese in November.

Medical staff will be posted at the airport to briefly check those arriving from Sars-affected areas, organisers say, and health care will be available around the clock at the venue.

Indonesian President Megawati Surkarnoputri is expected to officially open the conference.

"The over-reaction to the Sars issue is more damaging to the travel industry then other issues such as the World Trade Centre or the Bali blasts," said Pata president and chief executive officer Peter de Jong.

Travel warnings

Bali is trying hard to lure the tourists back, but there are concerns that a perceived over-reliance on tourism is responsible for a loss of local identity, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Jakarta.

Indonesia wants countries to lift official travel warnings

There is a debate under way about how to promote Bali as a tourist destination, while at the same time protecting its cultural identity, our correspondent says.

On Saturday the island marked the six-month anniversary of the bombings in which many young foreign tourists were killed.

A one-minute silence was observed at the bomb site in the tourist town of Kuta, where two devices exploded outside the Sari nightclub on 12 October last year.

Indonesia is still appealing to Australia and other countries to lift official warnings against travel to the island.

On Sunday it emerged that a 47-year-old British man had become the first probable case of Sars in Indonesia.

The man's identity has not been made public, but Indonesian health officials say he's being treated in a Jakarta hospital.

Despite its close proximity to Singapore, Indonesia has yet to record a confirmed case of Sars.

But news of a probable case has dispelled any lingering sense of complacency, our correspondent says.