JAKARTA ~ More holidaymakers heading to Bali boosted overall national tourist arrivals by 12.22 percent in the first half of 2007 compared to last year, according to data released this week.

The number of foreign tourists heading to Indonesia climbed to 2.14 million in the first six months of the year, official figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed.

Visitors coming through Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport rose 33.7 percent to 781,059, while the number of tourists passing through Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport dropped 1.9 percent to 554,086.

The spike in arrivals signals a rebound for Bali’s tourism industry.

For the month of June, overall arrivals through Indonesia’s 15 entry points rose to 411,264, up 12 percent from 366,137 in May, the bureau said.