‘Stuck’ with Charm of Island of the Gods

Mount Agung erupted. Ngurah Rai International Airport, the gateway to the Island of the gods closed. Thousands of tourists were stuck.

Kompas/Bahana Patria Gupta

Mount Agung evacuees practice playing the gamelan at the Agriculture UPTD evacuation post in Rendan district, Karangasem regency, Bali, Monday (4/12). A number of activities are carried out by evacuees to repel boredom, including gamelan-playing.

Mount Agung erupted. Volcanic ash swept over Bali. Ngurah Rai International Airport, the gateway to the Island of the gods closed. Thousands of tourists were stuck, unable to go home, unable to arrive.

Thousands of hotel rooms in Bali may remain vacant and unoccupied until the end of the year. Thousands of restaurants were deserted. However, several tourism business players are seeing Mt Agung as a guardian attraction. They were grateful and optimistic that the “storm of problems” would subdue.

“Stuck in Bali”. The phrase has become the promotional catchphrase of Aishwarya Exclusive Villas in Gianyar regency, and has been posted on its social media account since the airport closed on Nov. 27. The villa offered discount prices, slashed by half from Rp 1.2 million to Rp 600,000 for a night.

In addition, the “Stuck in Bali” tourism promo was also offered as a Mt Agung eruption tour to Lempuyang Temple and Amed Beach. The half-day tour to Lempuyang Temple is Rp 450,000 per car and Rp 500,000 per car to Sunset Point at Amed Beach. The prices include one memorable photograph with Mt Agung in the background.

“The room bookings were all canceled for one week. Like it or not, tiyang [I] had to get creative. I saw a photo on the Instagram of a Russian friend, posing as if they were in a samurai combat with Mt Agung in the background spewing ash. Then, I started offering this,” said Aishwarya Exclusive Villas marketing communications executive Bagus Putra.

It turned out, Bagus said, the promotion attracted foreign tourists. Those who arrived were mostly those who were stuck in Bali, unable to go home as scheduled. Many tourists came to the villa for the eruption tour. The scenery was rare and the home countries of the tourists did not all have volcanoes.

Henri Tanan, owner of the Umah Tinjung homestay in Tianyar, Kubu, Karangasem, also depended on the view of Mt Agung’s eruption to promote itself. A clear view of the volcano is seen from the homestay, so he introduced a half-price promotional rate.

Tourists came, and stayed at Umah Tinjung for no less than five days, attracted to the eruption. This was much better than having 10 unoccupied rooms that coat Rp 600,000 each per day.

Visiting for a reason

London-based photographer James South flew in directly to Bali to capture the eruption. He chose to stay at Henri’s homestay. Approaching sunrise, he was busy preparing a camera and drone. For South, this was a rare event and he did not want to miss it.

South works as a commercial photographer for hotel promotions in Singapore and Malaysia. Now, he is choosing to stay temporarily in Bali to capture Mt Agung.

“This is my first experience watching a volcano eruption. Anyway, this is a safe location, right?” South asked Henri repeatedly.

Henri gave explanations like a tour guide: The area was located beyond the danger zone of a 10-kilometer radius from Mt Agung.

Balinese photographer Nyoman Butur Suantara posted the natural phenomenon on social media. “The moment is too big to miss. I did not only take photos, but also learned about volcano terminology,” Suantara said.

Unfortunately, Bagus’s and Henri’s good fortune did not bless Kadek Erawan. The owner of Warung Legong in Gianyar had to think hard to avoid dismissing employees. The warung, which normally served 110 people a day, served only 10 people per day after the eruption.

“I expected people to eat here this Saturday and Sunday. But only a few people turned up. I had to reschedule the staff so only six of 18 staff would be working,” Erawan said.

Visa extension

At the airport, no small number of foreign tourists experienced difficulties, especially when applying for a visa extension, getting a ticket refund and rescheduling flights. Not to mention, these were tourists who had no extra money.

Bank Indonesia’s Denpasar branch estimated the losses from Ngurah Rai airport’s three-day closure at Rp 209 billion. This was calculated from the around 44,000 foreign tourists who had canceled their trips, with an average daily spending of Rp 1.3 million over a three-day stay in Bali. It also included the cancellations of 44,000 domestic tourists with potential spending of Rp 520,000 per day per person over two days. This did not include losses of about Rp 11.5 billion from the canceled 11,031 room bookings at 44 hotels and villas.

“There is nothing unusual with tourism players who were upset and worried by the lack of incoming tourists. It is also normal that employees worried about being dismissed because there were no guests,” Udayana University tourism professor Darma Putra said.

Everything must be faced with logic and heart. This was not the only time that Bali was hit by an event that affected tourism. The two bomb attacks and the Ngurah Rai airport closure due to ash from Mt Raung and Mt Barujari in 2015 are some examples. Bali has much experience to learn from in improving its economy after the latest eruption of Mt Agung.