Foreign tourists arriving at Bali airport. Credit ST.
It’s claimed more foreign tourists are on the way to Bali for Christmas and New Year holidays.
According to the airport authorities, airplane and passenger movement in I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport is on the up.
“Airplane and passenger growth on Dec 20 was positive,” said Communication and Legal Section Head of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Arie Ahsanurrohim, on Thursday.
Arie told to republika.com that the international flights arriving to Bali grew 20 percent from 65 flights last year to 78 flights the same day this year. Foreign passenger arrivals also grew 5.41 percent year on year from 11,749 passengers last year to 12,385 passengers yesterday.
On the contrary, domestic passengers declined slightly. Domestic passenger arrivals on December 20 were 15,366 passengers, down 1.95 percent compared to last year, which were 15.762 passengers.
PT Angkasa Pura I of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport Branch have approved extra flights. There are 477 extra flights with 80 thousands seats from five airlines. The flight route is mostly domestic, from and to Surabaya with total of 182 flights, then Lombok (112 flights), Jakarta (81 flights), and then East Indonesia cities.
Bali Regional Tourism Authority (BPBD) stated there has been growth of foreign tourist arrivals to Bali since December 16. “Approximately 26 percent of the foreign tourists came from Australia, then followed by Europe (20 percent), India (13 percent), Malaysia and United States with the amount of five percent,” said the Head of Bali BPBD, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati.
He said that the Australian tourist is a bit different to the others. They treat Bali as their second home, and they are well familiar with Bali. “Australian tourists don’t need to plan a vacation to Bali. They can come on the weekend, then they will return to their country for their workdays,” he said.
