DENPASAR ~

Foreign holiday makers continued to flock to Bali despite boycotts call by Australia over the plan to execute two death row drug convicts from that country.

Significant increase was recorded in the number of arrivals of foreign visitors at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai airport and Bali’s seaports, tourism observer Tjok Gede Agung said.

“Bali remains a favorite destination for foreign tourists despite setback in political relations with Australia,” Tjok said here on Friday.

Based on officials record of the Bali Tourism Office 637,217 foreign tourists flew directly from their respective countries to Bali in January-February, up 14.8 percent from the same period in 2014.

Relations between Indonesia and Australia suffered a setback over the plan to execute two Australians drug convicts on death row.

There has been threat to boycott visit by Australians to Bali, but apparently the people of Australia has ignored the boycott call.

Australians still led in number of foreign visitors to Bali, Tjok said.

The number of Australians visiting Bali rose 16.76 percent on-year to 156,424 in the first two months of 2015 or 24.55 per cent of the total number of foreign visitors to Bali.

The second largest number was those from China reaching 145,749 in the January-February period of 2015.