DENPASAR

The province of Bali hopes to  attract 400,000 tourists from China this year, up 40 percent from 300,000 last year.

“This year we set the target that the number of visitors from China would increase 40 percent to Bali,” Head of Bali Tourism Service Ida Bagus Kade Subikshu said here.

Subikshu said based on information from China’s Consulate General in Surabaya, East Java, around one million Chinese will visit the country this year. At least 400,000 of the visitors are expected to visit Bali, one of the world’s famous resort islands, he said.

He said the number of Chinese visitors to the country is relatively small compared to the total number of Chinese traveling abroad .

He quoted the information from the Chinese Consulate General as estimating  around 75 million Chinese travel  abroad to various countries every year.

In a bid to attract more Chinese tourists to visit the country, a number of meetings has been made and arranged  with Chinese officials, he said.

He cited meetings have been held with officials of the province of Kunming as part of efforts to promote the country’s tourism.

He said most tourists to Indonesia  from the world’s most populous country want to visit Bali.

However, most of them want direct flights to Bali  without transits, he added.

“According to the Kunming city mayor three million Chinese  could visit Bali if direct flight is available,” he said.

He said China is now a major market target for Bali tourism  with the growing trend of visitors from that country.

Based on statistic data of the Central Bureau of Statistics the number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali  in the first four months of 2013, reached 128,134  or an increase of 3.03 percent from 124,293 in the same period last year.

The number placed China second only to Australia  from which the number of visitors totaled 242,935 in the January-April period  or an increase of 2.07 percent from 238,003  in the same period in 2012.

Apart from the cultural similarity between Bali and China , Bali’s culinary  and natural beauty  are the main attractions drawing Chinese tourists to one of the world’s major tourist destinations.