Bali has seen an increase in foreign tourist arrivals over the first three quarters of 2018, compared with the same period last year, with Chinese tourists coming in the lead.
Looking at aircraft alone, there were 107,338 aircraft recorded as coming in and out of I Gusti Ngurah Rai, both through the domestic and international terminals, whereas that number was 96,723 in 2017, making for an increase of 11 percent, according to Ngurah Rai Air Transport Traffic (LLAU) statistics.
As for overall passenger movements (foreign and domestic), there were 15,640,887 people served in the first eight months of 2018 at the Bali airport, an increase of eight percent, compared to the same period last year, which had 14,481,013 passengers entering and leaving Bali through the airport.
“In general, there was an increase in LLAU statistics at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in the period from January to August this year. We recorded an increase of 11 percent, while for passenger movements there was an increase of eight percent,” I Gusti Ngurah Rai Yanus Suprayogi confirmed with Merdeka in Badung, Bali on Wednesday.
From January to August 2018, Bali has experienced 4,139,187 foreign tourist arrivals, up 6.61 percent compared to last year’s third quarter accumulation of 3,882,526 foreign arrivals.
Of the 2018 foreign arrivals, a recored 972,442 tourists are from China, making the country the largest contributor to foreign tourists to Bali, coming through the island’s airport. Trailing China is Australia, with 770,228 and India, with 244,628 foreign arrivals.
Chinese tourists overtook Australians as Bali’s biggest market from the start of 2017 and have continued to dominate since then.
“Regarding the records for foreign tourists, China, Australia, and India still occupy the top three largest contributing countries,” Suprayogi said.
