As I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport releases the most recent travel data for August, it becomes evident that the desire for island vacations is poised to increase once more as we approach the year’s end.
Although there was a minor decrease in international arrivals when compared to July, the general trends indicate that Bali is steadily progressing toward surpassing its tourism goals for 2023.
July marks the peak of the high tourist season in Bali. Historically, August has seen a decline in arrivals. However, in 2023, the decline in international arrivals from July to August was only 6%, much lower than in previous years.
The Bali Airport recorded more than 2 million passenger movements in all of August 2023. The total passenger movements for the year up to that point were 13,910,000 when added to the cumulative data. Heryudhitiawan explained that 2,143,643 people traveled through the airport in August. Even if this accomplishment in August saw a 6% decline from prior months, it was still one of the highest monthly figures in 2023, with an average of about 65,000 passengers per day.
It is interesting to see statistics about travelers from other countries. According to these statistics, 56% of all passengers arriving at and departing from Ngurah Rai Airport in August were from other countries. There were 584,138 departures and 548,036 arrivals.
891,080 domestic travelers passed through Bali Airport, including both arrivals and departures.
Heryudhitiawan said, “During August, the domestic destinations with the highest passenger traffic were still dominated by the Jakarta route, which reached 55% of the total number of passengers on domestic routes or 489,860 passengers.”
With 22% of all international passengers arriving via Singapore, this was the busiest air route to Bali in August in terms of demand for international travel.
13% of all overseas arrivals were from Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne was second with 8%.
“In 2023 we project to service 20.3 million passengers. With the recovery of the tourism sector on the island of Bali and the potential for additional new flight routes as I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in the future, we are optimistic that this [target] figure can be reached this year,” Heryudhitiawan concluded.
Bali tourism leaders earlier this year called for more international air service to be made available to visitors from China and India.