REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- The Indonesian Tourism Travel Bureau Association (Asita) has expressed hope that the visit of former US president Barack Obama to Bali would help attract foreign tourists to the island.

"We hope the number of tourists from the US to Bali would increase," Bali's Asita Chairman Ketut Ardana stated here, Tuesday.

The visits of world leaders to Bali help to promote Bali internationally since they are covered by the media, he said.

Their visits to Bali will also draw other leaders to visit Bali for a vacation, he added.

Tourists from the US usually stay for more than a week in Bali, and they prefer five-star hotels, he remarked.

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The number of US tourists to Bali had reached 64,042 during the January-April period, or an increase of 19.7 percent from that recorded during the same period last year.

The US stands sixth among the list of 10 countries contributing the largest number of foreign tourists to Bali. From January to April 2017, a total of 1,817,772 foreign tourists had visited Bali.

A total of 511 thousand tourists from China had visited Bali during the period between January and April, followed by 353 thousand from Australia, and 74 thousand from Japan.

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