"Some of them arrived at Ngurah Rai airport straight from Australia, and only 3,241 arrived by yachts," head of the Bali statistics office I Gede Suarsa said here Sunday.
He said Australia was on top of the 10 countries whose tourists visited Bali.
Last year, 641,588 Australians visited Bali, a 43.67 pct increase compared to 446,570.
The Australian tourists appeared to have considered Bali their second home, as its economy and security have much improved.
Australia contributed 24.85 pct of the total number of 624,195 foreign tourists to Bali in this year`s first quarter, which is a 10.70 pct increase compared to only 563,847 in last year`s same period.
He said the ten countries with the highest number of foreign tourists visiting Bali were Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea Selatan, Taiwan, Russia, UK, Singapore, France and the US. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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