Experts report on travel trends in Bali for 2024

Academics from the Unud Tourism Excellence Center in Bali recently presented their findings regarding tourism trends and traveler habits for the past 12 months.

Those visiting the Denpasar Regency increased their average spend by 11.3 percent this year compared to 2023, hitting about IDR 2,242,540 per traveller.

While travellers who stay between seven to 14 days on the island make up a large portion of annual visitors, there are hundreds of thousands more who visit for a shorter duration.

What do tourists spend on in Bali?

For the most part, travel expenses included accommodation, food and drink, local transportation, souvenir shopping, tour guides, tourism attraction fees, water sports and adventure activities, spa and wellness activities, as well as nightlife entertainment. 

According to researcher Nyoman Ariana: “It was found that spa and wellness activities tend to be increasingly popular with tourists visiting Denpasar. So spa, wellness tourism activities are important to be developed seriously in the future.”

The data also showed that, up to November 2024, Denpasar Regency welcomed 1,772,975 tourists on overnight stays, 

This was made up of 448,425 international tourists and 1,324,550 domestic tourists. 

Based on the figures, domestic tourists also increased their average spending, though by only 3.5 percent. 

Where do travellers come from?

Most international tourists came in from Australia, followed by the Netherlands and Germany.

The average age range ran between 27 and 42 years. 

Domestic tourists, on the other hand, opted to visit from Jakarta, East Java, and Central Java. 

The bulk of domestic tourists are part of the Gen-Z generation and are known to set the travel trends that eventually filter out across traveler demographics, into the older domestic tourism markets, and into the international traveler community.

According to Ariana: “We noted that foreign tourists seek information via Instagram and Facebook, while domestic tourists use Instagram and TikTok as sources of information. This can be taken into consideration by tourism attraction managers when promoting their tourism products.”