REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANADO -- A significant increase has been recorded by North Sulawesi in number of tourists from China in the first quarter of 2017. 

"In the first three months of this year, North Sulawesi recorded a five-fold increase in the number of foreign tourists to 17,335 mostly Chinese from 3,467 grew in the same period last year," North Sulawesi Governor Olly Dondokambey said here on Friday. 

Chinese has dominated visitors to North Sulawesi. In March alone, there were 3,889 Chinese visiting the province or 75 percent of the total number of foreign visitors. 

Others visitors were from Singapore, Germany, the United States and Hong Kong.