TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The international community, particularly originating from Asia, welcomes the visa-free policy imposed by the Indonesian government in the attempt to increase foreign visit to Bali.

An increase number of visits to Bali from China, Japan and South Korea have shown since the start of 2015, tourism analyst Dewa Nyoman said in Denpasar on Monday, Aug. 17.

Hotel guests staying in tourism areas in Bali mostly originate from Asia-Pacific.

Based on the records from Bali’s Tourism Department, the increase in tourist visits from China, South Korea and Japan to Bali experienced a climb of above 10 percent for periods January-June 2015, whereas tourist visit from Malaysia and Singapore are the opposite.

Chinese tourist visiting Bali in the first half of 2015 are recorded as much as 340,711 people or up 28.64 percent from last year. The number reached 17.79 percent of all travelers to the region of 1.9 million people.

Meanwhile, tourists from Japan are also up by 11.86 percent from 93,090 to 104,127 people for periods January-June 2015. Tourists from Korea also experienced in a climb by 10.65 percent from 75,433 to 68,172 people.

Dewa Nyoman said the government has added Russia to the visa-free policy in 2015 besides Japan, China and South Korea. However, the number Russian tourist remain low due to the difficulty in air transport from Indonesia to Russia and vice versa.

This is one the obstacles for Russian tourist to visit Bali. The number of tourist visit from the country was reduced to 25,574 people for periods January-June 2015, or down by 35 percent from the same period last year of 39,783 people.

BISNIS.COM