BTB optimistic to reach its 6.5 million target for foreign tourists

Denpasar, Feb 26 (Antara) - The Bali Tourism Board (BTB) said it is optimistic it would reach the target to attract 6.5 million foreign tourist to visit Bali this year.

With Mount Agung looking peaceful there would be no cause discouraging or canceling visits to Bali by tourists this year.

Many foreign tourist cancelled visits to Bali last year because of repeated eruptions of the volcano disrupting flight schedules to and from Denpasar.

However, despite continued reports of Mount Agung`s rumblings, Bali recorded a healthy growth of 15.62 percent to 5.69 million visits by foreign tourists or 769,802 visits higher than 4.92 million in the previous year. Stronger growth of 21.8 percent year-on-year was recorded in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the whole country to 14.04 million that year.

"The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali even exceeded the target of 5.5 million ," head of the provincial Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Adi Nugroho said earlier.

The rise has bolstered the confidence of the government, and tourism industrialists over the future of tourism in the country, which lies in the ring of fire.

"The Bali`s target is around 40 percent of the country`s target for foreign tourist arrivals of 17 million set for this year," chairman of BTB Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana said here on Monday.

BTB will organize visit abroad to promote Bali tourism in cooperation with the tourism industrialists.

The business players in the tourism sector from the regency of Badung plan to visit Berlin to take part in tourism promotion at an international tourism exhibition in that German city from March 7-11 this year.

More potentials market for Indonesian tourism include China, Australia and India.

Partha said the promotion is necessary to fully recover Bali`s tourism sector after the damage cause by repeated eruption by Mount Agung mainly toward the end of 2017.

He appreciated the initiative of the government in inviting foreign ambassadors to visit Bali especially the regency of Karangasem , the hardest hit by the eruptions.

"It was a brilliant strategy that the foreign ambassador could see for themselves that Bali is safe in general," he said.

Garuda Indonesia has opened new routes linking Denpasar and Xian and Zhengzhou of China and plans to open more new routes between Bali and Indian cities.

International airlines such as Emirates Airlines announced recently the opening of new route for direct flights between Dubai and Auckland of New Zealand with transit in Bali.

Earlier the airline already opened direct flights between Bali and Dubai. (*)