Fewer visitors to Sukawati Art Market

Sukawati road-facing market located in_Gianyar Regency has a strategic position, as it is passed through during the tour to some destinations to the east. Sukawati art market is close to Celuk village, the center of gold & silversmiths. We can drop in after watching barong and Kris dance performance in the morning.

The Sukawati Art Market during the weekend was not like the condition in previous months as fewer visitors spared a time to drop by at one of the popular art market in Gianyar or even on Bali Island.

This was worsened by the arrival of the rainy season in this November and it was predicted that the season would end in the upcoming February 2008. Certainly the condition even deterred domestic and foreign tourists to visit Sukawati and consequently the business in the market remained sluggish. Except on weekdays, the number of tourists visiting the art market that displays various kinds of high quality handicrafts is considerably high.

The nationalities of the tourists were mostly from China, Taiwan, but several tourists from Australia and the United States were also seen to do sightseeing as well as shopping there.

“Since the Bali bombings, there are hardly foreign or even domestic tourists visiting Gianyar regency, particularly Sukawati as one of traditional art markets and a popular destination in Gianyar,” a trader, Sudarmika said on last Sunday.

According to him, before the Bali bomb blast, Sukawati was one of popular tourist destinations in Gianyar and became the favorite place for foreign and local visitors.

It is the art market in Gianyar that offers several art products, like plait crafts, various paintings, traditional musical instruments, handicrafts, and others. The market is potential to attract more and more tourists spending holidays to visit the destination.

“Normally, in the afternoon numerous foreign tourists are visiting the market, but now they hardly come to this place,” he said. Furthermore, he said that another factor why very few tourists coming to the art market is that the drivers of buses or other means of transportation often find difficulties to park their vehicles.