Earlier this year, authorities announced that they wanted to see 4.5 million international tourists visit the island in 2023.
Officials are optimistic that after a little more than half of the year, the island will not only meet but even exceed the tourist goals for this year.
According to travel data collected so far, 2.9 million foreign visitors came to Bali between January and July 2023.
The provincial government and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economies are sure that, in view of this, the island will exceed its targets by the end of the year.
Addressing reporters Ngurah Rai Sugito, the director of the TPI Special Immigration Class I Office, said: “Previously, in 2022, the Provincial Government of Bali targeted 1.5 million foreign tourist visits, but instead, it exceeded 2.1 million visits. So, we are also optimistic that we can achieve this year’s target.”
The number of visitors coming to Bali is still lower than before the pandemic, when the island routinely received more than 6 million foreign visitors annually.
However, the numbers are rising fast. Travelers and tourism businesses are looking forward to the Christmas and New Year vacations, when the extended school vacations come to an end and the peak travel season in Bali turns into a quieter time.
Bali welcomed an additional million visitors for the New Year’s 2022–2023 period. The same is expected for this year.
According to Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economies, Indonesia is on course to exceed its tourism goals by 20–25% by the end of 2023.
“We at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy provide performance guidance to actors in the tourism and creative economy sectors,” he said.
“There have been two revisions [of national tourism data]. Now the latest figure is 8.5 million. It looks like we’re about 20-25%, so it looks like we will be above target by 20-25% above the most optimistic target,” he reacted.
“If the optimistic target is 8.5 million, but we see that the number of foreign tourists will reach 10 million this year, God willing,” he concluded.
In 2023, Bali will continue to target 4.5 million visitors, accounting for more than half of all foreign visitors to the nation.
Australia is still the country from which most visitors come to Bali. So far this year, 652,461 Australian visitors have traveled to Bali.
More than 230,000 visitors from India visited Bali between January and July this year, indicating that the island is attracting a growing number of these visitors.
Due to more direct flights and a relaxation of strict Chinese Covid-19 regulations, Bali is experiencing a boom in Chinese tourists.
In 2023, a total of 131,458 Chinese visitors came to Bali. Visitors from the United States and the United Kingdom ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. 129.137 visitors from the US and 126,822 visitors from the UK have visited Bali so far.