Denpasar (Antara Bali) - Bali recorded an increase of 22.76 percent in the number of foreign tourist arrivals to 3.9 million in the first 8 months of the year from 2.6 million in the same period last year.
"Around 3.15 million of the visitors flew in here directly from their respective countries and around 40,880 came by sea also directly from their countries," head of the provincial office of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Adi Nugroho said here on Monday.
The Bali Tourism Service has set the target for the number of foreign visitors to tourism island at 4.2 million for this year.
In 2015, there were 4,001 million arrivals of foreign tourists recorded by Bali or an increase of 6.24 percent from 3.76 million arrivals in the previous year. The number was slightly exceeded the target of 4 million set for that year.
Adi Nugroho said in August alone there were 438,135 arrivals of foreign tourists recorded at the Ngurah Rai airport and 206 arrivals at Bali's seaport - or an increase of 44.30 percent year-on-year but down 9.52 percent from the previous month.
Adi Nugroho said among 10 main countries of origin of the foreign tourists, an increase was recorded from nine countries. Only one, Malaysia, recorded a decline of 5.78 percent to 112,575 in arrivals in 2016.
The nine other countries include Australia from which the number of arrivals rose 18.51 percent to 741,952 in the first 8 months of 2016, followed by China from which the number of arrivals surged 35.06 percent to 661,462, Japan up 7.98 percent to 154,597 arrivals, Britain 42.56 percent to 142,994, India up 61.57 percent to 117,897, France up 31.48 percent to 113,819 and the United States up 33.55 percent to 111,201 arrivals, South Korea up 0.02 percent to 97,888, Germany up 35.05 percent to 96,653 arrivals. (WDY)
