Bali Updates

Om Swastiastu ...


Despite promises to take steps to reduce long delays for inbound passengers at Bali's airport, immigration authorities have unexpectedly announced that tourist visitors will now be photographed and fingerprinted upon arrival. In other, not-unrelated, coverage, we examine why Indonesian tourism's competitiveness is slipping according to the latest survey conducted by the World Economic Forum.

Other leading news stories this week follow developments in an investigation conducted by prosecutors and Bali's governor into suspected corruption of Bali's tourism promotion funds; a worrying report of an expanding dengue fever epidemic; the governor's assessment on how Bali successfully overcame last year's world economic crisis; Bali's need for 1,000 CCTV cameras to improve security island-wide; and why a leading police authority thinks enforcing vehicle registration laws against big-bike convoys may prove too dangerous to undertake.

Electricity or the lack thereof, is back in the news. The substitution of promised quiet Swiss generators with cheaper, noisier Chinese models at a Denpasar power plant has sleep-derived villagers up in arms and has stopped the expansion of power generating capacity from Pesanggaran. In another article, 50,000 families in Bali are unable to obtain even a minimum power connection in Bali's continuing electrical crisis.

There's new managerial appointments in Bali hotels; news on the 32nd staging of the Bali Arts Festival coming in June; Earth day celebrations in support of women's education on April 24th; and a zany literary night dedicated to "The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway" in Ubud on April 29th.

Feel like reading other people's mail? Have a look at our mailbag in this week's installment of "We Get Mail."

I'm in Singapore through Wednesday of this week calling on travel industry colleagues. Drop me an email if you'd like to talk about what the hard working team at Bali Discovery can do to assist your organization with any of your Bali travel requirements.

Read the full report at: http://www.balidiscovery.com/update/update710.asp


Om Çanti Çanti Çanti Om ...

J.M. Daniels - Bali Update
Bali Discovery Tours