ARRIVALS OF BRITISH TOURISTS IN BALI UP

Denpasar, Bali, Sept. 24 (ANTARA) - The number of British tourist arrivals in Bali reached 48,209 people in the first seven months of 2009, up 9.10 percent from 44,188 in the same period last year.

"The significant increase has placed Britain among the top ten countries supplying tourists to Bali," Ida Komang Wisnu, head of the Bali provincial central bureau of statistics (BPS), said here on Thursday.

Britain tourists accounted for 3.70 percent of the total foreign tourists visiting Bali, namely 1,304,359 tourists during January-July 2009, up 12.26 percent from 1,161,915 in the same period last year.

The number of tourist arrivals from Australia also increased 36.98 percent, China 61.07 percent, Malaysia 21.74 percent, France 50.68 percent, and Germany 0.92 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of tourist arrivals from Japan fell by 10.77 percent, South Korea 6.06 percent, Taiwan 18.45 percent and the United States 0.63 percent.

Australia took the lead in terms of foreign tourists visiting Bali, followed by Japan, and China.

In July 2009, Bali received 235,198 foreign tourists, an increase of 17.27 percent from a month earlier, or 23.23 percent from July 2008.

Last year, Bali was visited by 1,998,850 foreign tourists, up 19.40 percent from 1,668,531 in 2007.

During January-June 2009, the number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia reached 2.97 million, or up 2.17 percent from 2.90 million in the same period in 2008.