National

Number of Tourists to Lombok Decreases Due to Limited Transportation
Friday, 26 August, 2005 | 09:59 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:There have been complaints from travel agents on Bali regarding limited air transportation for tourists between Bali and Lombok.

Apart from the small capacity of planes serving the route, flight schedules are often not on time and cause difficulties for foreign tourists as regards connecting flights to their countries.

One such complaint was made by Freddy Rompas, General Inbound Manager of Pacto Travel Agency.

Originally, Pacto could handle the arrival of 7,000 tourists--mostly from Italy--to Lombok per year, but now the number has dropped to only around 2,000 people.
“It is useless promoting abroad if transportation is unavailable,” stated Rompas.

According to him, reliable transportation facilities, such as planes and speed boats, are required for foreign tourists to enter and leave Lombok.

Following the decrease in foreign tourists, the Benoa (Bali) to Lombok route served by the Bounty and Mabua cruise boats has been halted.

Foreign travel agents still rely on Merpati airlines, which fly between Bali and Lombok seven times a day.

Other airlines, including Wings Air of the Lion Group and Germania Trans Air, which has only been operating for the last 1-2 years, have not yet won the agents’ trust.

Up to now, 7,000 of the 27,000 tourist arrival to Indonesia handled by Pacto have traveled to Lombok.
Most of them relax visit in quiet places such as Kuta beach, the southern parts of Central Lombok and the tourist island of Gili Trawangan. (Supriyantho Khafid-Tempo News Room)