The number if Indian tourists vising Bali has significantly increased to 17,354 between January and August 2008, compared to only as low as 1,700 during the same period last year, and industry player said. “I am sure more Indian tourists will be visiting Bali as Balinese culture bears many similarities with Indian’s,” Cokorda Agung, a tourism observer and practitioner said.
Indonesia is targetting Indian tourists starting 2008 by intensifying tourism promotion in the South Asian countries, he said. He appreciated the Indonesian government for establishing a number of tourism promotion offices in Indian cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai.
Balinese and Indian are both Hindus but there are differences in the way they practice the rituals and this would raise Indians’ curiousity, he said. To strengthen cultural relations between India and Indonesia, the Indian government has opened Indian Cultural Centers in Bali and Jakata. Prominent Indian Hindu figures such as Mount Abu India and Dada JP Vaswani had also visited Bali several times, he said.
During the January – August period of 2008, Bali received a total of 1.2 million tourists, and increase of 20% from around one million in the same period span of last year. Most of foreign tourits came from Japan, Australia, and Taiwan.
News by ANTARA
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