Number of Chinese Tourist Arrivals Increases in Bali In September

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - Only the number of Chinese tourist arrivals increased in Bali in September 2009, while the number of tourists from other countries mostly went down in that period.

The number of Chinese tourist arrivals in September 2009 reached 19,156, an increase from 18,884 in August 2009, according to data of the Bali tourism office, Saturday.

Bali received a total of 154,846 Chinese tourists in January-September 2009, up 65 percent from 93,773 people in the same period last year.

China is on the third of the top 10 countries contributing to Bali's tourist dollar earnings. The top 10 countries include Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and France.

The number of Australian tourist arrivals in Bali was 45,390 people in August, down to 42,590 in September 2009.

The number of Japanese tourists also dropped from 32,000 in August to 31,000 in September.

Australia, however, is still on the first rank with a total of  315,389 tourists, and Japan on the second with 249,724.

Australia accounted for about 17.89 percent of the total number of foreign tourists visiting Bali (1,756,491) during the January-September  period in 2009, he said.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali went up 13.60 percent from 1,546,266 in the same period of last year.

The hotel occupancy rate in Bali during that period was 63.02 percent. (*)