Indonesia's Bali receives increasing number of French tourists: official

JAKARTA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's resort island of Bali received an increasing number of French tourists last year, thanks to the growing direct flights connecting French cities to Bali, an official said Sunday.

Bali received 162,288 French tourists last year, 10.09 percent higher than 147,413 ones it received a year earlier, Representative of Visit Indonesia Tourism Office (VITO) in Paris Eka Moncare said.

Eka said French people's demands to travel to Bali have been improving in the last few years and were well-addressed by international airlines which provide direct flights from several cities in France to Bali.

"Besides that, Bali also provides various kinds of accommodation facilities from guest houses to multi-star hotels with most of locals familiar with English and French languages," Eka said in a statement.

The increasing figure of French tourists in Bali has made France ranking the seventh of top ten nations which supplied the most tourists to Bali last year.

In average, French tourists stay half a month during their vacation in Bali, spending at least 110 U.S. dollars per day during their stay, Eka said..

Cultural and traditional attractions were the tourism elements that French tourists are mostly interested in Bali, she added.

To attract more French tourists, Indonesia will carry out more promotion events, coupled with efforts to hold tour package sales programs both on business to customers (b to c) and business to business (b to b) basis, Eka said.

Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that France, along with Britain and Germany, have been the largest suppliers of tourists to Indonesia in recent years.

"Bali was still dominating French tourists' destination preference in Indonesia at 40 percent," the minister said in the statement.

The other Indonesian destinations favored by French tourists were Jakarta and Riau island at 30 and 20 percent respectively. Enditem