"Most of them arrived at the island paradise at Ngurah Rai airport straight from their country, and only three arrived by yacht," head of the Bali central statistics agency (BPS) I Gede Suarsa said here Friday.
He said Malaysia was the fourth after Australia, China, and Japan of the ten countries with the biggest number of tourists to the island paradise.
Malaysia contributed 6.43 pct with 624,195 in this year`s first quarter, a 10.70 pct increase compared to the 563,847 in last year`s same period.
Gede Suarsa also said that last year 146,865 Malaysian tourists enjoyed the cultural arts and natural view of the island, an increase of 16.30 pct compared to the last year`s 13,51.
Of the ten countries with the biggest number of foreign tourists to Bali, those of six countries increased significantly but four declined.
The six countries were Malaysia and Australia with an increase of 28.59 pct from 120,238 to 156,093, Russia 25.16 pct from 21,250 to 26,.596, Singapore 53.88 pct from, 15,062 to 23,177, the UK 46.35 pct from 14,081 to 20,508, and the US 32.65 pct from 14,514 to 19,386, while the four countries China dropped 2.15 pct from 58,225 to 56,971, Japan 19.68 pct from 65,059 to 52,253, Taiwan 15.29 pct from 33,714 to 28,558, and South Korea 1.39 pct from 28,396 to 26,002, Gede Suarsa said.(*)
H-NG/H-YH
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
