Bali faces a challenging race against time, with just three months to go to achieve the ambitious target set by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparkeraf) – to welcome 4.5 million foreign tourists in 2023.
In August, the cumulative number of foreign tourist visits to Bali reached 3,418,907, leaving a significant gap of 3,418,907. 1,081,093 foreign tourists have yet to visit.
Endang Retno Sri Subiyadani, head of the Bali Province Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS Bali Province), reported a remarkable 282.14 percent increase in foreign tourist visits from January to August 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
Australian tourists topped the list with 844,483 visitorswhich makes up 24.71 percent of the total.
Following Australia, Indian tourists secured second place 288,430 visitswhile British tourists came third with 173,051 visits.
Remarkable, Chinese tourists ranked fourth, accounting for 171,634 visits, and fifth place was claimed by 168,145 American tourists.
Singapore, South Korea, France, Malaysia and Germany also prominently featured in the top ten.
However, in August, Bali saw a slight decline in foreign tourist visits, reaching a total of 522,141, a decline of 3.55 percent compared to July, when 541,353 tourists arrived. Australians remained the largest group to visit Bali in August, with 120,467 visits, followed by tourists from India, France, China and England.
Despite this, there is an urgent need to boost tourism in Bali as the current room occupancy rate (TPK) for star hotels stood at 60.64 percent in August, down 2.60 points from July. The average length of stay for guests was 2.55 days, while non-star hotels reported an average of 2.22 days.
The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has set a target of attracting 4.5 million foreign tourists to Bali by 2023, aiming to revive the island’s tourism sector post-Covid-19. Tjokorda Bagus Pemayun, head of the Bali Tourism Service, expressed optimism about achieving this goal, highlighting the rising trend in the number of foreign tourists following the pandemic-induced downturn.
