Image: Foreign tourists visit Bersakih temple near Mount Agung. Credit: en.minanews.net
Tourist arrivals to Bali from January to April 2019 decreased marginally compared to the same period of 2018. Arrivals last year totaled 1,884,459, while tourist visits during 2019 reached 1,828,935.
The Head of Badung Tourism Board, I Made Badra, said that the decrease was normal because it was during low season. He was optimistic that the visits would increase in the second quarter.
“The data showed that the visits have decreased, but it happened at the beginning of the year in the low season. We hope the visits will increase significantly in May, June and July, because it is holiday season during those months,” said Badra to nusabali.com on Sunday.
He explained that the tourist visits were still dominated by Chinese, Australian and Indian tourists at the moment. “They were followed by British and US tourists during April 2019, while in March 2019 they were followed by US and Japanese tourists,” he said.
He was also optimistic that the targeted 6.8 million tourist arrivals during 2019 could be achieved. The target has increased compared with last year, which was 6.5 million visits. “I hope there are no disasters or crimes which could cause inconveniences, which have affected tourist visits in the past,” he concluded.
