No fall in Bali bookings for Virgin
Virgin Australia is yet to notice a decline in bookings for travel to Bali amid calls for a boycott of the holiday island over the impending executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Amid a ratcheting up in diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Jakarta over Indonesia’s insistence that the two Bali Nine drug smugglers will be executed, a social media campaign calling for Australians to boycott Bali has been gathering pace.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has also warned that Australians would register their “deep disapproval” if the executions go ahead, and may choose to avoid Bali, while the “boycott Bali” campaign has been trending on social media.
But Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti says the airline has not been affected.
“We haven’t seen any slowdown in bookings as yet,” Mr Borghetti told AAP on Thursday.
“Obviously we’ll continue to monitor it like we do with every route on our network and if demand and supply don’t match, then you adjust your business accordingly.”
While Virgin says it has not yet been affected, the online travel website cheapflights.com.au told news.com.au that it had observed a significant decline in interest in holidays to Bali, particularly after Ms Bishop made her comments at the weekend.
Indonesian authorities continue to plan for the executions of the drug traffickers, who were arrested in 2005 along with seven other Australians, and later sentenced to death for their part in a heroin smuggling conspiracy.
A new schedule for their move from Kerobokan prison, or their execution date, is yet to be announced.
A spokesperson for Garuda Indonesia also spoke to Travel Weekly and confirmed they have not experienced any cancellations for travel to Indonesia.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
bali bali 9 bali boycott indonesia virgin australiaLatest News
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