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BALI’S Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) recorded the region’s foreign tourist arrivals at 5.37 million, as of December 15, 2023, or slowly recovering to 88%, from 6.3 million in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The number of foreign tourists visiting Bali in 2023 has exceeded the target of 4.5 million people,” Chairman of GIPI Bali, Ida Bagus Agung Parta Adnyana, stated on the sidelines of the 2023 Tourism Evaluation Meeting in Denpasar, Friday (12/29), 2023.
According to Adnyana, this achievement was in line with projections from the United Nations World Tourism Agency (UNWTO) which stated that recovery of the global tourism sector was at around 80-90%.
Adnyana drew attention to a two-fold increase in foreign tourist arrivals in Bali as compared to 2.3 million people recorded in 2022 after international flights opened in stages, starting March 7, 2022.
The increase in the number of foreign tourists in Bali will also encourage economic growth in the region in 2023, which reached above five percent by the third quarter of 2023, he remarked.
Meanwhile, Bali’s economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2023 is projected at 5-5.5%, which is always above the national economic growth, he highlighted.
He noted that international activities during Indonesia’s chairmanship of the ASEAN were also one of the driving forces in increasing foreign tourist visits, such as boosting MICE tourism or conferences and business meetings.
Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia amounted to 9.5 million in October 2023, of which 46.2% had visited Bali. With this achievement, Bali is still the largest contributor of foreign tourists in Indonesia followed by Jakarta and Batam.
Australian tourists are still dominating the figure, with 25%, followed by tourists from India, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, France, Singapore, Germany, and Malaysia. [antaranews/photo special]
