Japanese Tourists to Bali Down 7.20 PCT

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - A total of 333,905 Japanese tourists visited the resort island of Bali last year, down 7.20 percent from a year earlier.

Despite the drop Japan still ranked second after Australia, contributing nearly 14 percent of the total tourist arrivals in Bali last year, head of the Bali provincial statistics office Ida Komang Wisnu said here on Friday.

More than 2.38 million tourists visited Bali in 2009, an increase of 14.48 percent compared to 2008 when the figure stood at  2.08 million, he said.

The number of tourists from six of Bali's top 10 visitor-generating markets rose significantly and those from the other four fell, he said.

The six countries that saw a significant increase in their tourists to  Bali last year were Australia 42.62 percent, China 56.98 percent, Malaysia 4.21 percent, France 46.62 percent, Britain 13.07 percent and The Netherlands 22.14 percent, he said.

The number of tourists from South Korea meanwhile fell 7.43 percent, Taiwan 7.67 percent and Germany 9.11 percent, he said.(*)