Tourist Arrivals In Bali Up

Denpasar, Bali, March 2 (ANTARA) - A total of 253,286 foreign tourists visited Bali in January 2012, up by 21.14 percent from the same period last year. "Most of the tourists came to Bali via Ngurah Rai Airport by direct flights from their country and only 3,558 of them by cruise liners," Head of the Bali Office of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Gede Suarsa said on Thursday. Last year about 2.82 million tourists visited the resort island, a 9.72 percent increase compared to 2.57 million in the previous year. Compared to January 2011, the number of Australian tourists visiting Bali in January 2012 increased 8.40 percent from 58,770 to 63.70, Chinese tourists 222.18 percent from 17,102 to 55.099, Taiwanese tourists 20.11 percent from 9,717 to 11,671, and Malaysia 13.53 percent from 10,267 to 11,656, South Korea 1.23 percent from 10,439 to 10.567, Singapore 9.76 percent from 6,893 to 7,566, the US 17.13 percent from 5,791 to 6,783 and Britain 2.73 percent from 6,157 to 6,325. Meanwhile, the number of Japanese tourists fell 23.54 percent from 16,747 12,805 and Russia 6.15 percent from 11,499 to 10.907.