Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Australia led the ten top sources of tourist arrivals in the resort island of Bali in the January-September 2016 period, an official said.

"The number of Australian tourists visiting Bali in the first nine months of this year reached 850,326, up 16.85 percent from 727,678 in the same period last year," chief of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Office in Bali, Adi Nugroho said here on Sunday.

Most of the Australian tourists traveled to Bali by direct flights. Only 18,554 of them went to the island by cruise liner.

More and more Australians visited Bali as they regarded it as their "second home", he said.

Australia contributed 23.36 percent of the overall tourist arrivals in Bali at 3.63 million over the period, up 21.69 percent compared to the same period last year when the figure was recorded at 2.99 million.

Adi Nugroho said nine of the ten top sources of tourist arrivals in bali saw a significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals in Bali. Only the number of Malaysian tourists fell 6.64 percent to 138,203 from 138,203.

Meanwhile, China occupied the second place with 35.84 percent of the total budget fund.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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