Australians Are Flocking To Bali As Destination Skyrockets In Popularity

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New travel data reveals the top international visitors to Bali for the month of May. The Central Statistics Agency released in-depth travel data every month, with a one-month lag.

The figures from May 2023 make for interesting reading. 

The Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) for Bali Province, Endang Retno Sri Subiyandani, has released travel data for I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar.

His teams have analyzed all the comings and goings of travelers for the year so far, and it looks like Bali remains on track to hit visit targets of 4.5 million international arrivals in 2023. 

Subiyandani revealed that the most frequent visors to Bali in May 2023 were from Australia. In total, 106,641 Australian passport holders were stamped into Indonesia at Bali Airport.

Australian tourists are consistently the most frequent international arrivals into Bali.

This is a testament to the long-standing relationship between Indonesia and Australia and the everlasting charm of Bali that has Aussies coming back for more. 

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Many Australian tourists visit Bali more than once a year. Affordable seats and generally less than a 7-hour flight time means that Bali is the perfect destination for a family holiday, a quick long weekend getaway, or even a romantic retreat. 

Bali has just become even more accessible to Australian tourists planning their next visit. The Indonesian low-cost airline has just announced two new flight routes, one from Perth to Denpasar and another from Perth to Jakarta.

Travelers heading to Bali from Western Australia can realistically hope for average flight prices to go down as competition for other airlines like Jetstar just got tougher.

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Travelers from Australia’s Northern Territory may have to take a roundabout journey to Bali later this year. Jetstar has announced that they are pausing ticket sales for Bali-Perth between 9th October and 8th November 2023. Officials from Jetstar issued a statement earlier this week to explain the situation. 

The statement shared that the decision has been made in light of proposed construction and maintenance works at Darwin Airport later in the year.

Jetstar has said, “the dates and times of the runway works have not yet been confirmed; we have proactively stopped selling flights during this period to limit the number of customers potentially affected.”

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The airline added, “If the works do not go ahead on these dates, we will put the flights back on sale.”

So as Australian travelers continue to prove their love of Bali, and demand for tickets remains high across all major cities, is there any chance that the Aussies will lose their place as most frequent visitors to the Island of the Gods?

In May, the next most frequent international arrivals were from India, with 48,300 tourists landing in Denpasar, a far cry from the over 100,000 Australians who arrived in the same period.

In third place were travelers from China, with 23,530, followed by 23,512 travelers from the United States and 23,272 from the UK.

In his press release, Subiyandani shared cumulative travel data for the year so far.

He explained, “Compared to January-May 2022, the arrival of foreign tourists in January-May 2023 has increased 888.64 percent.”

This is no surprise since international borders formally reopened in February 2022, and it was a notably slow start to the recovery process.

Subiyandani “As of May 2023, foreign tourists who have come directly to Bali have reached 1,877,215 visits. If it’s the main entrance, then the total that enters Indonesia is 4,118,521, so 45.58 percent of all foreign tourists [to Indonesia] enter through Bali.”

As the high season gets underway in Bali, the island is feeling busy and bustling.

Officials in Bali are working hard to ensure that tourism targets all not only be met but surpassed the year.

This mission to welcome 4.5 million international arrivals is still on the cards.

Officials have implemented new strategies that enable new arrivals in Bali to understand the rules and regulations of life on the island and ensure that high-quality and sustainable tourism prevails.