Every year, more and more foreign tourists seem to come to Bali and the following year, the government always ups the target to get that number higher and higher.
For instance, Bali’s target for 2016 had been set at 4.4 million foreign tourist arrivals, a number that the island managed to surpass in just November 2016.
So for 2017, the government is hoping Bali will bring in 40 percent of the national target of 15 million foreign tourists to Indonesia (that’s a hefty six million for those of you who hate math).
With its chunk of 40 percent of the target, it probably comes as no surprise that Bali’s got the highest expectations for raking in tourist numbers from across the country.
“Bali is still number one compared to the other regions in Indonesia,” assistant deputy for Tourism Human Resource Development, Wisnu Bawa Tarunajaya said on Saturday, as quoted by Antara Bali.
Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta’s got a goal of 30 percent, followed by Sumatra’s Batam at 20 percent, says Tarunajaya.
To attract foreign tourists to other parts of the country, the government apparently has plans to develop additional tourist destinations, including Sumatra’s Lake Toba, Tanjung Klayang in Bangka-Belitung province, Thousand Islands in Jakarta, and Tanjung Lesung in Banten province, West Java. Other potentials are Mandalika in Lombok, Labuhan Bajo in Flores, Wakatobi in Sulawesi, and Morotai in Maluku.
