JAKARTA -- The story of Bali in the last six years is one of miraculous comebacks.
In the face of Islamic extremism, natural disasters, outbreaks of disease and an airline industry beset by lax safety standards, the tiny island paradise has managed to surpass all its foreign tourist arrival records for the second year in a row.
Even fresh challenges like the global financial crisis and the solemn reminder from Mumbai of the persistent threat of terrorist attacks have not yet thwarted Bali's resurgence.
The numbers are clear: In October, which marked the sixth anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people including 88 Australians, foreign arrivals leaped 20 percent from the previous year.
The Island of the Gods, as it is affectionately known, is on track to receive almost 2 million foreign tourists by the end of 2008, the most in its history.
The thousands of hotels, which only several years ago were left eerily vacant, are reporting capacity of more than 90 percent. Throngs of tourists, led by Japan, Australia and the United States, now flood the streets and the shops.
"There are many more customers than before," says Suzie, who goes by only one name and offers massages on one of Bali's high-end beaches for about $3.
"Life has been a little bit easier for me and my family lately," she says. "I still worry though that something will happen and the visitors will stop coming again."
Immediately after the 2002 bombings, tourism to the island plummeted, forcing the millions of Balinese who depend on the tourism industry into dire straights. At least two-thirds of the more than 3 million people living in Bali rely on tourism, while the rest survive mostly from agriculture.
The island had just begun to recover from the 2002 bombings in 2005 when three suicide bombers launched coordinated attacks on tourist hot spots, killing more than 20 people, again crushing the tourist industry. Since 2005, Bali has sometimes struggled to convince potential tourists that it remains a safe destination.
