More Singaporeans visit Bali

The Bali Central Statisics Agency (BPS) says almost 17,000 Singaporean tourists visited the resort island in January, an increase of 121.4 percent over the same period last year.

"The significant increase was a result of various factors including the image of Bali as secure place for a vacation, its many unique attractions and the relatively short flight time between Singapore and Bali," Bali BPS chief Gede Suarsa said Tuesday as quoted by Antara.

Almost 5,900 tourists from Singapore visited Bali in January 2010. For the whole year of 2010, the total number of Singaporean visitors to Bali was 97,402, up from 55,992 in 2009.

In terms of their numbers and country of origin, Singaporean tourists constituted the eighth-largest group to visit Bali in 2010, after those from Australia, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan, Suarsa said.

In January 2011, Bali received a total of 209,093 visitors, a 16.6 percent increase over the same period last year.