S`pore tourists to Bali up 30.97 pct

A total of 62,893 Singapore tourists visited Bali in the first seven months of 2011, up 30.97 percent from 48,020 in the same period last year.

"The significant increase improved Singapore`s rating to seventh from ninth among the top ten sources of foreign tourists visiting Bali," Head of the Bali Provincial Statistics Office Gede Suarsa said here on Friday.

Last year, 97,402 Singapore tourists visited Bali, a 73.96 percent increase compared to 55,992 in the year before, he said.

"Singapore is one of the potential markets for Bali`s tourism. Hopefully, more and more Singaporeans will visit Bali in the future," he said.

Most of the Singaporean tourists came to Bali by direct flights from their country, and only 10 of them arrived by cruise ships, he said.

The Singapore tourists made up 3.96 percent of the overall number of tourist arrivals in Bali in the seven months through July which reached 1.58 million.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of tourist arrivals in the world-renowned tourist island in the year ended July 31 represented a 10.60 percent increase, he said.

He said the number of Australian tourists visiting Bali in the January-July 2011 period rose 26.58 percent from 341,664 to 432,480, China 11.63 percent from 118,008 to 131,731, Malaysia 19.27 percent from 80,406 to 95,898, Taiwan 1.41 percent from 78,059 to 79,162, South Korea 0.54 percent from 71,019 to 71,399, France 7.18 percent from 56,744 to 60,817, Britain 8.49 percent from 51,491 to 55,864 and the US 25.58 percent from 39,806 to 49,989.

However, the number of Japanese tourists visiting Bali fell 26.07 percent to 104,788 from 141,743.