BALI SETS HIGHER TARGET OF FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS IN 2018 by Fardah

  Jakarta, Jan 30,2018 (Antara) - Bali, one of the world's most famous tourist resorts, hopes to receive at least 6.5 million foreign tourists this year, or one million more foreign tourists than the target of 2017, which was 5.5 million.

        The target at 6.5 million is quite ambitious as normally Bali set an increase of 500 thousand foreign tourists every year.

        Head of the Bali Tourism Office Anak Agung Yuniartha Putra recently explained that there were a number of factors supporting the target such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank (WB) meeting to be held in Nusa Dua in October this year.

        "The IMF-World Bank annual meeting has been confirmed to be held in Bali by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs  Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. The meeting will have a positive impact on the number of visits by foreign tourists," Yuniartha said.  
     More than  5.7  million foreign tourists visited the resort island of Bali in 2017, outstripping the target of 5.5 million for last year.

         The number of tourist arrivals in 2017 rose 16 percent from 4.92 million a year earlier.

         Most of the visitors to Bali were via the Ngurah Rai International Airport.

        The number of visits by tourist boats to Bali reached 68 in 2017 contributing to the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali that year, according to chief of the Bali Tourism Office AA Yuniartha Putra.

        The cruisers landed at the Tanjung Benoa  and Celukan Bawang ports carrying foreign tourists, he added, giving no figure for tourists landed on the two ports.

        The number of visits by foreign tourist via seaport using tourist boats reached 32,052 in the first half of 2017, growing 28 percent from the same period in 2016.

         The Bali administration is hopeful that Chinese visitors will continue to lead in number especially with the lifting of the travel warning issued by the Chinese government following the eruptions of Mount Agung  that discouraged visitors to the tourist island.

        The second largest in number are expected to come from Australia, followed by India, Japan and Britain.

        To achieve the target, the provincial government has asked district and municipal administrations to create new tourist destinations and develop the existing tourist destinations.

        Bali has at least 10 excellent destinations located in various districts and municipality and that infrastructures, human resources and promotions must be improved in such way that they attract more tourists,  Yuniartha Putra said.

        Meanwhile, PT Angkasa Pura I said I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport of Bali recorded a 17.4 percent increase in the number of international passengers last year.

       The international airport recorded 5.9 million international passengers in 2017 or 71.4 percent larger than the number recorded in  the previous year, General Manager of the airport Yanus Suprayogi said on Jan 19.

        Chinese nationals made up the largest in number of international passengers reaching 1.3 million  or up 43.3 percent  from the previous year.

        Most of the Chinese came in groups  using chartered aircraft.  In 2016, there were many chartered aircraft landing at Ngurah Rai airport  with Panda icon. The chartered aircraft came from  a number of large cities such as Beijing, Chengdu, Pudong Guangzhou, Hangzhou,  and Zhengzhou.

        As for tourists from Australia, the number declined slightly to 1.07 million  from 1.08 million in 2016.

        From India the number of tourists  rose 49 percent to 266,000 from 179,000 .

         China has become the largest source of foreign tourists to Bali lately.  This year, the government of Indonesia is targeting to attract three million Chinese tourists to various tourism attractions in Indonesia.

       Last year, the target of two million Chinese tourist arrivals set by the Indonesian government was not met, as Bali was affected by Mount Agung's eruption that resulted in the temporary closure of the Ngurah Rai International Airport.

       To attract more Chinese tourists, Indonesian national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia Airlines has planned to increase the number of flight frequencies from Beijing to Denpasar, Garuda General Manager for Beijing Hans Hanliono informed Antara recently.

         The increase in the number of flight frequencies from Beijing to Denpasar aims to help realize the target of Chinese tourists visiting numerous tourism destinations in Indonesia, especially Bali.

         "Starting from April 2018, we will operate flights on the Beijing-Denpasar route every day," Hanliono revealed.

        Garuda has, so far, been operating flights on the Beijing-Denpasar flight route five times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, by using a Boeing 777-300ER, with a capacity of some 360 passengers.

       Furthermore, Bali has struck a cooperation agreement with China concerning celebration of "Imlek" (Chinese New Year) which will fall on February 22.

        Bali's Governor Made Mangku Pastika said Bali will organize joint activities with Chinese counterparts.

       While receiving the acting consul general of China, Chen Wei recently, Pastika expressed his hope for collaboration between a Yunan  artists and Balinese artists.

        "We can showcase our close relationship through this collaboration," he told Chen Wei. ***1***
(f001/S012)

(T.F001/A/BESSR/Suharto) 30-01-2018