REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- Around 330,172 Chinese tourists visited Bali during the initial seven months of 2014, an increase of 45.76 percent as compared to 226,494 visitors recorded last year.

"China is ranked second after Australia in the number of tourists visiting Bali," Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali Panusunan Siregar stated here on Monday.

He explained that China has contributed 15.80 percent of the total number of tourists to Bali. This year, Bali has drawn about 2.08 million tourists, an increase of 16.66 percent as compared to 1.79 million tourists recorded in the previous year.

The total number of Chinese tourists who traveled to Bali surpassed the number of travelers from Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, except Australia.

Siregar remarked that majority of the foreign tourists came through Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport. Only 20,295 people traveled to Bali through the sea route.

During 2013, Bali received 3.27 million foreign tourists, which exceeded the target of about 2.8 million visitors set by the local tourism office.

An increase of 11.16 percent was recorded as compared to 2.94 million tourists last year.

Tjokorda Gede Agung, a Bali tourism observer, noted that Chinese people have since long known Bali as a paradise island. The cultural relations between China and Bali have led to deeper relations between Indonesia and China, especially with Bali. Therefore, the number of Chinese tourists increased every year.

Chinese tourist arrivals to Bali increased, but their numbers were still relatively small as compared to the number of Chinese tourists traveling overseas.

"The opportunity to draw foreign tourists from China is still large by maximizing the various efforts," he emphasized.

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