So far we are seeing tendency that Bali tourism products are sold very cheaply. Negative competition practices such as price battle and wholesale pricing are some common negative conducts we often find in Bali tourism industry. Therefore Chairman of the 1st Commission in Bali Provincial House of Representatives, Made Arjaya, strongly suggests the the government to apply standard pricing for Bali tourism products.

“As one of the most popular holiday destinations of the world, it is the right time for Bali to implement standard pricing for tourism products including hotel accommodations, excursion packages, transportation services, and other product related to tourism. The bottom line is that we have to stop selling Bali in low price”, he told the press as reported by local daily, Bali Post, yesterday (Dec 5th).

Furthermore Arjaya believes that pricing of Bali tourism products has to be regulated in a legal regulation issued by the provincial government of Bali and applicable throughout the island. In elaborating the regulation the government has to pay careful attention and collect opinion from related stakeholders. To ensure obedience, the regulation has to also clearly define punishment for those who neglected it.

“I think a regulation on standard pricing of tourism products needs to be implemented urgently as competition in tourism industry in Bali tend to be worsening. Therefore I would suggest the government to immediately elaborate a draft to be submitted to the House of Representatives”, he said.

He reminded that Bali has to stop selling its tourism products cheaply. Bali has to put quality at the top priority and target only high quality visitors as well. To enable itself to get high quality visitors Bali needs to increase service quality in every facet of tourism industry. “One of the possible ways to filter out only high quality visitors is implementing higher price. For the time being we are selling our hotel accommodation too cheaply, foods are sold too cheaply, transportation services are also sold too cheaply”, he said.

Being a very small island with limited capacity Arjaya hopes Bali to prioritize high quality at higher price instead of number of visitors. Bali has to stop being proud of fantastic figures in getting so many visitors without paying attention into its quality. “It is better to have moderate number of visitors but all of them are high quality ones”, he reminded.