Geraldton travel agents say it’s business as usual for Bali travellers despite foot-and-mouth disease outbreak

Bali travel is still ticking along despite the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, according to two Geraldton travel agents. A spokesperson at Helloworld in Geraldton said it was business as usual with the amount of travel in and out of the infected country remaining the same. “People are still booking — Bali isn’t our biggest seller — but it’s stayed consistent and people are still travelling,” she said. The spokesperson said when customers had a concern, they were directed to Smart Traveller for assistance. “Foot and mouth disease is not affecting us at the moment,” she said. Naomi Botica, travel consultant at Flight Centre Geraldton, said she hadn’t seen much of an influx of Bali bookings compared to Europe. “It’s not as popular as before COVID, travellers are wanting to go to other destinations,” she said. However, Ms Botica said her clients weren’t mentioning FMD as a concern. “I think it’s also to do with the limited airlines going to Bali, Jetstar are the only airline operating at the moment. “At the moment it’s pretty unpredictable, navigating through everything.” Jetstar media advisor Felipe Castillo said so far there had been no impact to the operations, and the flight service had not seen a big shift in demand. WA Farmers Federation president John Hassell said so long as people were vigilant and co-operated with bio-security measures, the disease wasn’t easily transmitted. But, Mr Hassell said the quantity of travellers returning to the country with undeclared items from Indonesia was a serious concern, and there needed to be a stronger security presence if flights in and out of Indonesia were to continue. “It is quite a fragile virus, the way it got into England was through meat products imported from France and fed to pigs,” he said. “The problem is people bring stuff in from their bags. It’s a risk, and we need people to be vigilant.”