MORE MALAYSIANS VISIT BALI

Denpasar, Feb 16 (ANTARA) - More Malaysian tourists came to Bali last year making the country the fourth biggest supplier of foreign tourists to the island.

"Malaysia is the fourth biggest supplier of tourists to Bali after Australia, Japan and China," the head of Bali's statistics office, Ida Komang Wisnu, said here on Tuesday.

A total of 135,190 Malaysians came to Bali last year, up by 4.21 percent from 129,723 in the year before.

Wisnu said almost all of the Malaysian tourists flew directly from their country to Bali while only one came aboard a cruise ship.

Malaysia contributes 5.67 percent of total foreign visitors to the island recorded at 2,38 million last year, up by 14.48 percent from 2.08 millions recorded in the previous year.

Wisnu said the number of tourists from six countries grouped in the ten biggest tourist contributors rose quite significantly.

Five other countries that sent more tourists to Bali last year are Australia (up 42.52 percent), China (up 56.98 pct), France (up 46.52 pct), the Netherlands (up 22.14 pct) and Britain (up 13.07 pct).

Four countries that sent less tourists last year are Japan (down 7.20 pct), South Korea (down 7.43 pct), Taiwan (down 7.67 pct) and Germany (down 9.11 pct).

Wisnu suspected that the world financial crisis had been the cause of the decline.