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Denpasar (ANTARA News) - The economic recession currently hitting the Americas seems not to have discouraged people in those countries to spend vacations in Bali, provincial tourism data show.

The number of American tourists who came to Indonesia`s "island of gods" during the January-April period in 2008 rose 29.5 percent from 24,148 to 31,280, according to a report released by the Bali provincial tourism office on Saturday.

Local tourism business circles had assumed the economic recession in the Americas would cause a decline in tourist arrivals from those countries but the data disproved this belief.

The monthly number of American tourists who flew directly to Bali increased continously during the January-April period. In January the number was 6,620, in February 7,282, in March 9,304 and in April 8,074.

With the continuous rise in the number of American tourists coming to Bali, the continent is now one of the 10 biggest contributors to the foreign tourist flow to the resort island, accounting for 5.2 percent of the overall number of 594,068.

Of the 32 countries in the American continent, the United States, Canada and Brazil were those from where most of the American tourists came. During the January-April period the number of tourist arrivals from the US was 19,939, from Canada 7,334 and from Brazil 1,636.

Most of the overall number of foreign tourists who flew directly to Bali in the January-April period came from Asia-Pacific countries, namely 355.029.

The second biggest number of foreign tourists came from Europe (152.005), followed by ASEAN member countries (51.854), Africa (3.271), America (31.280) and the Middle East (629).

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