Bali’s Popularity Not Slowing As Island Hits 4.3 Million International Arrivals

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At the beginning of 2023, the Bali Provincial government set a target to welcome 4.5 million international arrivals to the island by the end of the year.

The Island of the Gods is not only set to hit this target but surpass it.

The Bali Province Central Statistics Agency (BPS), has revealed the latest travel statistics. Travel data in Bali is always shared with a one-month delay, so we are only just seeing figures for October.

The data revealed that the number of foreign tourists who arrived in Bali from January to the end of October 2023 has reached 4.3 million people. 

The Head of BPS Bali, Endang Retno Sri Subiyandani, told reporters in Denpasar “We can see the development of the number of foreign tourist visits from January to October 2023″

“Before the 2019 pandemic there was 5,224,882 [international arrivals] then in 2020 and 2021 it fell, then in 2022 it started to increase by 1,491,073 visits, and in 2023 it has reached 4,388,698 visits.”

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Subiyandani acknowledged that visitor numbers have not bounced back to the full pre-pandemic levels but that the recovery is still moving in the right direction.

She added that the provincial target of welcoming 4.5 million tourists by the end of December is essentially now guaranteed. 

Speaking from Jakarta, the Indonesian Minster for Tourism and Creative Economies said that 2024 is already looking bright for tourism across the country.

Minster Sandiaga Uno told reporters “The achievement of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia this year is around 11 million or above the target of 8.5 million.”

“In 2024, we are targeting 14 million foreign tourist visits. We are optimistic that in 2025, the tourism sector will recover to normal.”

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Subiyandani also noted that the data shows a dip in the number of arrivals between September and October. She confirmed “In December it will always be busy, but now or in October it drops a bit.“

She added, “Generally July and August have the highest number of visits, September-October it goes down, later November-December it goes up again, that’s the trend.”

The data analyst explained, ”The arrival of foreign tourists from China fell the most, up to 23.22%, where in September there were still 32,755 visits.”

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As ever the top international arrivals for vacations in Bali hailed from Australia with 119,273 visits in October alone.

The Australians were followed in second place by 35,488 tourists from India.

It is predicted that tourist arrivals from India will increase over the coming months, especially since last week’s launch of the first direct India-Bali flight. 

The new New Dehli-Denpasar flight is operated by Vistara and is crossing the Indian Ocean daily. Indian tourists are just one of the 97 nationalities who are eligible for a visa on arrival in Indonesia.

In a press statement the CEO of Vistara Airlines, Vinod Kannan said “We are very pleased to be the only airline currently serving direct flight routes between Delhi and Bali.”

“With the close trade and cultural relations between India and Indonesia, Bali is rapidly experiencing growth to become a major destination for business people and for Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) purposes.” 

This increasing demand for travel to Bali is opening up more flight routes in and out of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport.

The New Delhi-Denpasar service is just one of many new international and domestic routes popping up on the flight schedule.

In November Batik Air launched a new flight service between Bali and Adelaide making it even easier for Bali’s most frequent visitors to enjoy a vacation on the Island of the Gods. The service runs every Monday and Friday. 

Batik Air has recently confirmed that a new flight service will be launched in March 2024 connecting Canberra and Bali.

This will mean that Australian tourists can reach Bali from a total of nine cities namely Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth.