NUMBER OF BRITISH TOURISTS ARRIVING IN BALI INCREASING

Denpasar, Bali, Nov 8 (ANTARA) - The number of British tourists visiting the Indonesian resort island of Bali in the January-August 2009 period increased 10.50 percent to 58,560 from 52,994 in the same period a year earlier, a statistics official said.

"With he increasing number of British tourists arriving in Bali, Britain has ranked eighth in the list of biggest countries sending tourists to Bali," Head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) for Bali province, Ida Komang Wisnu said here on Sunday.

He said that Britain was ranked eighth after Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and France.

Wisnu said Britain contributed 3.81 percent to the total foreign tourist arrivals in Bali, which reached 1.5 million people.

On the national scale, more than 4.61 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the first nine months of 2009, up 1.07 percent from the same period last year.

"In September 2009 alone, the number of tourist arrivals was 493,799," head of the tourism ministry's data processing and network system center Ir. Wibowo said early this week.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of tourist arrivals in September 2009 slightly fell 1.44 percent, he said.

He said seven entry points including Ngurah Rai, Polonia and Sam Ratulangi Airports saw an increase in the number of tourist arrivals in September 2009.

In the meantime, the number of Australian, French, Saudi Arabian, UAE, and Chinese tourists to Indonesia has also increased significantly.

"The number of foreign tourists to Indonesia in the January-September 2009 period increased by an average of more than two digits," Wibowo said.

According to the center, the number of Australian tourists in the January-September 2009 period reached 368,236, which is a 26.66 percent increase, and French tourists reached 115,872, up by 26.67 percent.

In the meantime, the number of Saudi, UAE, and Chinese tourists reached respectively 40,374, 2,902, and 262,140, or an increase by respectively 24.33, 33.18, and 20.07 percent.***2***