TEMPO.CO, Bali - Bali welcomed 2.27 million foreign tourists during the first semester of 2016, 18.59 percent more than the previous years figure of 1.91 million tourists.

"A total of 2.23 tourists came by air directly through the Ngurah Rai Airport while the remaining 38,644 people come via the sea port," said the head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali, Adi Nugroho, in Denpasar on Monday, August 1, 2016.

The Bali Provincial Tourism Office has set a target of attracting as many as 4.2 million foreign tourists to the Island of Gods this year. In 2015, Bali received 4.001 million people, 6.24 percent more than previous year when 3.76 million people had arrived. The numbers are slightly above the target set at 4 million tourists.

Adi Nugroho said in June 2016, as many as 405,835 people visited Bali, 12.83 percent more than those who visited in the same month in 2015, and 2.86 percent more than the number of visitors coming in May this year.

Of the ten countries of the from where tourists mainly come to Bali, seven have seen a major increase in the numbers. The number of tourists arriving from the other three has decreased.

The seven countries from where significantly larger number of tourists arrived included Australia, China, Japan, Great Britain, India, the United States, and French.

Adi Nugroho added that three other countries from where lesser number of tourists arrived were Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore.

ANTARA