Chinese tourists arrival to Indonesia's Bali ranks third

* Source: Xinhua * [18:02 July 07 2010]

Chinese tourists arrival to Indonesia's Bali province ranked third in January-May 2010 after Australia and Japan, an official said here on Wednesday.

Chinese position beats China's Taiwan and Malaysia.

Data released by Bali's Central Bureau of Statistic shows that foreign tourist arrival to the province in the period amounted 952,073 or increased 9.43 percent from the same period last year of 870,029.

"Chinese tourists amounted 83,350 or 8.77 percent, decreasing 2 percent compared to a year before," said the agency's head Ida Bagus Komang Wisnu.

He said that the decrease was predicted to many activities in China and the impact of chaos in Thailand.

"Chaos made Chinese reluctant to go to Indonesia as they have to pass Thailand before arriving here," he said.

Head of Bali Tourism Board Ngurah Wijaya said that potential of Chinese tourists are big. Statistics show that they are always in top five.

The problem is, he said, limitation of accommodation rate in Ngurah Rai International Airport in accommodating direct flight.

The agency's data shows that Australia was at the first position with 22 percent, Japan 10.54 percent, China 10.54 percent, China's Taiwan 8.77 percent and Malaysia 5.76 percent.