IMAGE RESTORATION STRATEGY OF BALI TOURISM CRISIS

Abstract

This paper attempts to describe Bali tourism's strategy of image restoration during crises. It starts with the role of tourism for Indonesia's Bali economic growth and how tourism itself has been proved to be a vulnerable industry. A discussion on the literature of the importance of issues and crises management in tourism industry and Bali's identity, image, reputation and the role of Public Diplomacy for overseas image projector are also addressed. It then highlights series of tourism crises happen worldwide and how it affects Bali's tourism industry. It notes that Bali restores its image by improving local security system, developing tourism issues and crises management plan supported by strategic promotional and Public Relations approach. Besides, Bali's reputation should not depend only on tourism. It should be integrated with other competitive identities (Anholt, 2008) of product brands, government policy, investment, culture and people along with effective Public Diplomacy strategies. The paper concludes that a destination is not judged by its crises but more by how it prepares and responses to a crisis.