American Tourists To Bali Up Substantially Following Lifting Of Travel Ban

Denpasar ( Berita ) :  The number of American tourists to Bali has been increasing since the Indonesian government had lifted its travel warning, classiying the number of American tourists coming to the island resort as one of the big-ten.

The  number of tourists from other western countries also increased by an average of 20 percent, Ida Komang Wisnu, Head of the  Bali Central Bureau of Statistics said here Monday.

Komang Wisnu said the number of foreign tourists to Bali reached 1,664,854  last year. And their number increased further this year.

A total of 1,298,130 tourists came to Bali from January to August 2008, which was a 20 percent increase compared to the   1,079,751 people in the same period last year.

Americans from January to August 2008 coming to Bali reached  46,923, up by 30 percent from 36,092 compared to the same period in 2007 whereas the number of French tourists increased  23 percent from 42,281 to 52,080.

The Germans coming to the ‘Island of Gods‘ reached  50,676, a 18 percent increase from 42,802, or a 20 percent increase from 44,406 to 53,567 tourists. ( ant )