Chinese tourists to Bali up by 175.27 pct

Antara News, Thursday, April 1, 2010 20:27 WIB

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali increased by 175.27 pct from 11.422 in February 2009 to 31,441 in the same month this year.

"Thus, the number of Chinese tourists was only second to Australians of the ten countries with the highest number of tourists to the island paradise," Head of the Bali Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Ida Komang Wisnu said in Denpasar Thursday.

He said the significant increase in the number of Chinese tourists set aside Japan`s ranking which had been second, but now moved to third position.

"The number of Japanese tourists going to Bali dropped 19.80 pct from 29,538 in February 2009 to only 23,689 in the same month this year," Ida Komang Wisnu said.

She also said that the Chinese tourists in going to Bali all arrived at Ngurah Rai airport straight from their country.

"None of them came by ship," she added.

In 2009, the Chinese going to Bali reached 206,151, up by 56.98 percent compared to a year earlier reaching only 131.319.

Bali has 766 tourist guides who speak Mandarin.

Ida said Chinese tourists contributed 16.38 pct of the total number of foreign tourists to Bali totaling 191,926 in February 2010.

This performance increased 29.94 pct compared to those in February 2009 reaching only 147,704.

Ida Komang said of the ten countries with the highest number of tourists going to Bali, seven had the number of their tourist raised significantly and three suffered a drop.

The three countries were Japan by 19.80 pct from 29,538 in February 2009 to 23,689, followed by South Korea by 26.31 pct from 11,034 to 8,131, Malaysia 13,99 pct from 9,385 to 8,072.

The seven countries whose number of tourists increased were China and Australia reaching 63.78 pct, China 175.27 pct, Taiwan 92.88 pct, France 15.68 pct, Russia 28.25 pct, Holland 61.06 pct, and the United States 24.93 pct, Ida Komang Wisnu said.