LBHRC applauds GA turnaround as ‘Where the Bali hell are you?’ website
hits pass the 110,000 mark
(16 November 2006)

The Little Bali Hotel & Resort Company (LBHRC) has applauded the Garuda Indonesia (GA) decision announced today to continue to provide direct services from Australia to Bali from next year.

According to LBHRC co-founders Brett Morgan and Mike Parker-Brown, the GA resolution constitutes a major step forward for the company’s plans to help reposition Bali on the Australian marketplace.

“But the real winners at the end of the day are the Balinese people,” Mr Morgan said.

“While the main thrust of the LBHRC campaign has always been to reignite interest in the destination, the company was hopeful the huge reaction to our ‘Where the Bali hell are you?’ campaign would also play a role in helping GA to change its stance,” he said.

“Maybe it has and maybe it hasn’t but we are aware, judging by the response to our online campaign and feedback received, especially from the travel industry, that the carrier has been under immense pressure from within Australia and Indonesia to maintain its direct Denpasar services.

“The GA call is going to make a huge difference and LBHRC is very happy to be seen to be actually helping to make that difference – and we’re having fun doing it.

“But good news to one side, at the end of the day the people with the most at stake are the Balinese and they are the ones we really want to see gain some benefit from all of this.

“LHBRC has played a part in reigniting interest in the destination but now it’s up to all of the industry to combine resources and get Bali back to its rightful place as one of this country’s premier overseas tourist destinations,” he said.

Meanwhile the ‘Where the Bali hell are you?’ campaign continues to gather steam, the tongue in cheek viral marketing campaign, according to LBHRC figures, having attracted  more than 110,000 unique visitors from 25 countries.

“This week’s national TV coverage and the Channel 10 interview with (Minister for Tourism) Fran Bailey has obviously had an impact – we’ve received more than 27,000 hits in the last 24 hours,” Morgan said.

“If this was this was the music industry, we’d be up for a gold disc.”
 
To view the “Where the Bali hell are you?” clip, visit www.wherethebalihellareyou.com.