Australian visitors to Bali up 25%

Bali saw a 25 percent increase in numbers of Australian visitors in the first half of 2011, the Central Statistics Agency says.

The figures reveal that a total of 348,489 Australians visited Bali during this period, up from 278,049 in the same period last year.

“This fairly significant increase puts Australia in the top 10 countries supplying the most tourists to the Island of the Gods,” Bali Central Statistics Agency (BPS) office chief I Gede Suarsa said Tuesday in Denpasar.

He said most of the Australians entered Bali through Ngurah Rai Aiport, while 3,562 had arrived on yachts and boats.

Gede said many Australians now considered Bali as a “second home”, and added that the increasing number was also attributable to relatively short flight times between Bali and Australia, Australia’s improving economy and Bali’s improved security.

He said Australians constituted almost 27 percent of the total 1.3 million foreign tourist visitors in Bali from January to June, the number of which had increased 10.46 percent from 1.18 million in the same period last year.

Gede added that among the top 10 countries supplying tourists to Bali, eight had sent more and two had sent less during the first half.

The number of tourists from China increased 8 percent to 106,400; from Malaysia up 20 percent to 83,491; South Korea up 1 percent to 59,971; and Singapore up 34 percent to 65,660.

The number of tourists from the UK increased 26 percent to 48,489; from France 8 percent to 45,473; and from the US was up 24 percent to 41,303.

Only tourist numbers from Japan and Taiwan declined by 26 percent to 88,605 and by 0.35 percent to 65,360, respectively, Antara reported.

Source: The Jakarta Post