Bali has seen a bump in foreign tourists so far this year, with the Bali Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reporting 3.4 million tourists entered the resort island between January and July.
Bali BPS Head Adi Nugroho said the figure is 23.5 percent increase year on year.
“Those who came through Ngurah Rai Airport, flying directly from their countries is as much as 3.39 million people and 24,182 came through seaport via cruise ship,” Nugroho said, as quoted by state run news agency Antara.
Bali had set a target of 6 million visitors in 2017, up from the 4.2 million target in 2016, and is expected to account for 40 percent of the overall national target.
Nugroho points to a huge 57.53 percent increase in tourists from China compared to last year as causing the rise. India has also seen a massive increase with Bali welcoming 44.25 percent more visitors than the year earlier.
Australian and Malaysian tourists have taken a slight dip of 0.88 percent and 5.44 percent respectively compared to 2016 arrivals.
While Australians remain the second most prolific foreign visitors in Bali, their numbers have taken a slight downturn of 0.88 percent from last year to this year. Malaysians have also dropped down 5.44 percent from the previous year.