Total of 563,778 foreign tourists visited the resort island of Bali in the first quarter of 2010 showed significant increase for 14.95 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.

“Most of the tourists came to Bali by direct flights and only 3,175 of them by cruise liners,” Ida Komang Wisnu, chief of the Bali provincial statistics office said on Monday.

From ten biggest tourists’ supplier to Bali, seven of them rose significantly while that of three others fell, he said.

Australia took the lead, contributing 67.11 percent of the total, followed by The Netherlands 59.75 percent, Germany 23.96 percent, Taiwan 20.13 percent, France 8.16 percent, Russia 4.14 percent, and China 3.92 percent.

However, the number of tourists from Japan fell 22.06 percent to 65,059 from 83,068, South Korea 1.62 percent to 28,396 from 28,865 and Malaysia 8.03 percent to 27,548 from 29,954.

He said the number of tourists from other countries in the January-March 2010 period stood at 158,443, a 20.04 percent increase compared to 131,988 the same period a year ago.

In March 2010 alone, 182,579 tourists visited Bali, up by 0.34 percent from February 2010 or 14.49 percent from March 2009, he said.

The increase in the number of tourist arrivals raised hotel occupancy rates averagely 56.91 percent in February and 59.30 percent in March, he said.

News by Antara Bali