Does The Terrorism Threat Scare You Off Bali?

The reality is, terrorism has impacted on the nature of international travel, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

That said, we still intend to go abroad, we still do go abroad, and we still enjoy ourselves. Sow how much do terrorist incidents affect Australians’ plans or desire to visit a destination?

Roy Morgan data recently released the results of a survey of these questions, using Bali as a case study.

In 2015, Bali was visited by 7.6 per cent of Australian holiday-makers, accounting for the majority of Indonesian holidays. While always popular, Bali’s popularity has fluctuated over the years thanks for bombings in 2002 and 2005.

In September 2002, 147,000 Australians 14+ were planning to take their next holiday in Bali. By November the same year, intentions plummeted to just 14,000. It took two years for the intention levels to return.

Interestingly, the 2005 bombings did not have quite as dramatic an impact. Roy Morgan Research group account director Angela Smith said  reasoning is hard to discern.

“It is unclear whether this is because a far greater number of Australians were killed in the first attacks, or simply because people are becoming more ‘used to’ the new travel climate in which the threat of terrorism is an unfortunate part of the mix,” she said.

The execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in May 2015 had a similar impact to the 2002 bombings – intentions to visit the country dropped from 242,000 to 97,000. Yet by October that year, intention was back up to over 300,000.

While many travellers see Bali as close and easy to get to, the drama associated with the destination does put people off – if only temporarily.

Have you visited Bali in recent years, and does the threat of terrorism play on your mind? Would it ever stop you from going there or to another destination where the possibility of attack is higher than in Australia?