"Most of them arrived at the International Airport of Ngurah Rai by direct flights from their country, and only 1,506 people used cruise ships," Adi Nugroho, head of the Bali statistic office, said here, Tuesday.
India has become the third largest source of tourists to Bali, after China and Australia.
More Indian tourists are interested in visiting Bali because Bali and India have shared several similarities such as in Hinduism and culture, according to Nugroho.
The significant increase of Indian tourists to Bali was also thanks to the sound bilateral relations between the Indian and Indonesian Governments.
Besides, direct flights connecting Bali and India have also helped encourage Indians to visit Bali. Since early October 2017, AirAsia Indonesia has served direct flights connecting Kolkata, India, with Bali.
In May 2017, AirAsia Indonesia began to serve Mumbai (India)-Bali direct flights.
The number of Indian tourists to Bali constituted 4.53 percent of the total foreign tourist visits to Bali reaching 5.38 million during the 11 months of 2017, up 896,691 foreign tourists, or 19.99 percent from 4.48 million foreign tourists during the same period in the previous year.
China was in the first place constituting 25.54 percent, followed by Australia in the second place constituting 18.87 percent of the total number of foreign tourists, India (4.53 percent), Britain (4.25 percent), the United States (3.30 percent), France (3.17 percent), Germany (3.15 percent), South Korea (3.12 percent), and Malaysia (2.88 percent).
In fact, the number of Australian tourists to Bali dropped by 3.02 percent and Malaysia decreased by 2.66 percent.
reported by IK Sutika
(T.SYS/A/F001/A/O001)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
