Last year, 2,892,019 foreign visitors stepped onto the Island of the Gods. The figure represented a 4.91 percent increase from 2011. Most of them came from the Asia-Pacific region (59.02 percent), ASEAN at 12.85 percent, Europe with 22.14 percent, the US with 5.03 percent, while the rest came from Africa, the Middle East and other countries.
The survey was held by the Bali-chapter of Bank Indonesia twice last year during the months of May and November, with an overall 1,000 respondents. Unsurprisingly, more than 92 percent of respondents revealed that they came to Bali on vacation. Meanwhile, more than 81 percent of these respondents also said: “I’ll be back". The survey also revealed that Badung regency was the destination for the highest percentage (67.09 percent) of foreign tourists, with Gianyar recording 17.01 percent and Denpasar 13.07 percent.
Beaches still served as the favorite must-go spot (24.32 percent), while shopping accounted for 13.10 percent, museums for 12.63 percent and the remainder for nature destinations like mountains, lakes and waterfalls.
Bali had two types of tourists, those from the old-existing markets and the emerging ones. The old-existing markets understand Bali so well that they can come to Bali many times and they don’t need to use travel agents. Meanwhile, the emerging market was those who came to Indonesia for the first time. They come in groups and depend on travel agents.
Tourism in Bali continued to develop and grow because Bali had such an endless attraction for foreigners who wanted to explore the island instead of lying on the beach....