Dutch tourist arrivals in Bali up 22 pct

Antara News, Monday, December 21, 2009 18:12 WIB

Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The number of Dutch tourists visiting Bali in the first ten months of 2009 rose 22.01 percent to 63,622 from the same period last year.

The figure put Dutch in the tenth place as the resort island`s source of foreign tourists, overtaking the US, Head of the Bali Provincial Statistics Office Ida Komang Wisnu said here on Monday.

It was only in the past three months that the European country overtook the US, he said.

The Dutch tourists accounted for 3.21 percent of 1,982,274 foreign tourists visiting Bali in the January-October 2009 period, he said.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of tourist arrivals in Bali in the year ended October 2009 rose 14.22 percent, he said.

The vast majority of the Dutch tourists visited Bali via Ngurah Rai Airport. Only eight of them came to the resort island by cruise liner.

Ida Komang said six of the ten biggest sources of foreign tourists contributed significantly to the total number of tourists visiting Bali over the period. The number of tourists from China rose 65.29 percent, France 51.07 percent, Australia 35.46 percent, Dutch 22.91 percent, Britain 12.36 percent, and Malaysia 9.14 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists from Japan fell 9.12 percent, South Korea 6.11 percent, Taiwan 9.25 percent and Germany 7.20 percent.