Travelers to Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport might want to build in extra time to get through long lines and navigate the airport for the foreseeable future. Bali’s tourism has skyrocketed over the first half of 2023 with over nine million visitors passing through the province’s only commercial airport, and these numbers are expected to continue to rise.
Located in a central tourist hub, I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport has always been one of Indonesia’s busiest airports. Like most of the world’s other major travel destinations, Bali’s tourism sector took a significant hit over the past several years as far fewer people traveled to the area, but recent efforts to increase the availability of flights to I Gusti Ngurah Rai from various destinations have helped the Bali area reach and exceed its pre-pandemic numbers.
Although the exact number of individual people that visited I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on a domestic or international flight during this time frame is unknown because the method for collecting this data means that travelers that took multiple trips between January and June 2023 were counted multiple times, total passenger movement numbers indicate that Bali’s tourism sector is experiencing a strong recovery.
Bali reopened its borders to international travelers in February 2022, later than many other countries. While this means that the 127 percent increase in passenger movement during the same time frame in 2023 may not have the same impact that it would have if 2022’s numbers had not been at the beginning of its post-pandemic availability to international tourists, they indicate that visitors will continue to increase through the rest of 2023 and into the 2024 travel season.
Tourists that are considering heading to Bali in the near future can look forward to making plenty of memories exploring Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Ceking Rice Terrace, Mount Batur, and dozens of temples–as long as they give themselves plenty of time to catch their flight home!