DENPASAR ~

Foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia’s tourist resort province of Bali this year can exceed 3.5 million as 3.4 million arrivals have already been recorded for the January-November 2014 period, noted a tourism observer.

“Bali still remains the main foreign tourists’ destination in Indonesia,” tourism observer Tjok Gede Agung noted here on Monday.

He remarked that foreign tourists preferred Bali as their destination, which is evident by the number of international travelers arriving at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport.

He emphasized that Bali’s target to attract 3.5 million foreign tourists in 2015 was easily achievable as the target was too small, taking into consideration the current upward trend.

The tourism observer said that Badung, Bali’s most visited district by foreign tourists, has even set up a Tourism Promotion Board (BPPD). The district will undeniably implement aggressive strategies to lure more foreign tourists.

“I think the target of 3.5 million arrivals is too low,” he said.

He forecast that in the last month of 2014, the number of foreign tourists will further increase by 300 thousand, thereby reaching a total of 3.7 million annual foreign visitors.

Agung noted that Bali will still attract about 3.5 million foreign tourists in 2015 even without promotional campaigns.

He affirmed that most of the tourists arriving in Bali this year were Australians reaching 893,873 visitors or 26.15 percent, followed by Chinese with 539,252 tourists, and Malaysians with 197,052 visitors.

The number of Indian tourists visiting Bali also increase reached 78,023 during January-November 2014, or an increase of 36.72 percent from 57,068 recorded during the same period in 2013.

The Bali provincial administration had earlier hoped of seeing an increase of 500 thousand in the number of foreign tourists visiting the island in 2015.