Bali Tourism Calls for Open Skies to Bali

(4/12/2008) Bisnis Bali reports that the Chairman of the Bali Tourism Board (BTB), Ida Bagus Nurjaya has called on the government to "open the taps wide" and allow access to foreign airlines Bali if current plans to increase the size of the island in the tourism sector are to succeed.

According to Nurjaya, the continuation of financial problems and security problems faced by Garuda Indonesia, and the haphazard development of domestic aviation sector are among the main factors stunting the growth of national tourism .

The solution at hand, according to the head of CEL is to liberalize access to Bali for foreign airlines. He also cited the high demand for certain markets - such as China, Taiwan, South Korea and Russia, where demand often exceeds the capacity of seats in Bali.