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Have Aussies already been boycotting Bali?

They may be taking to social media to pitch for a ban on Bali or Indonesia in general, but are Australians actually standing by it?

They may be taking to social media to pitch for a ban on Bali or Indonesia in general, but are Australians actually standing by it?

 

Yesterday, we saw hundreds of Twitter users adopt the newly created hashtag ‘Boycott Bali’ after the execution of two Australians in Indonesia – Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran,

The two men were convicted by the Southeast Asian country for drug smuggling and spent the last decade in an Indonesia prison before meeting a firing squad in the early hours yesterday morning.

Immediately after the executions, people took to social media to share their disappointment in the Indonesian government and vowed to never travel to Indonesia again.

Indonesia

But this isn’t the first online protest against travel to Bali this year.

In February, the hashtag ‘Ban on Bali‘ was trending when the fate of the two men first made headlines across Australian media.

And while it’s too soon to tell whether Australians will actually stand by their vows to avoid Indonesia post-execution, tour operators say they haven’t seen a decline in Indonesia bookings since the call for bans first started in February.

According to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, so far, there has been no evidence of customers boycotting the popular Australian tourist destination.

Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Canberra this week, he said the company will keep a close eye on demand over the coming weeks ‘but at the moment there are no signs of any impact’.

Prambanan Temple, Indonesia KarryOn

Photograph by killerturnip on Flickr

Webjet concurred, saying there is a low correlation between political events and the way Australians travel.

In March this year, an Intrepid Travel spokesperson told KarryOn the operator had not experienced any cancellations for any Indonesia trips in recent months.

They hadn’t even received a letter of inquiry about the situation.

A spokesperson from HotelsCombined.com also told KarryOn in March that hotel bookings to Indonesia actually jumped by 20 percent last month compared to the same period last year.

And if you look at monthly Australian short-term departure figures, the number of Australians travelling to Indonesia since the men were first arrested in 2005 has increased steadily.

So will Australians actually boycott Bali?

If there is a drop in figures, it could come from several sources.

One could be the executions, but there’s also Indonesia’s decision to withdraw Australia from its list of markets to receive free-visas to the destination.

Another issue that could impact tourism between Australia and Indonesia is the rumour that two Indonesian government parties are looking to ban booze and make consumption of alcohol a prisonable offence.

So what do you think, will Australians actually boycott Bali?