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AKARTA: A top official has rejected international media reports that Bali is overcrowded with tourists.

“The [tourism potential] is, in fact, still underdeveloped,” Culture and Tourism Ministry’s cultural and tourism resources head I Gde Pitana said on Tuesday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said Bali received 2.5 million tourists every year.

“Singapore, which is one-seventh the size of Bali, receives 11 million tourists annually,” he said.

Pitana said the island was lacking in infrastructure, citing the small capacity of the sole airport on the island.

He said the government had recently announced a plan to build a new airport in North Bali with an investor from India.

Time magazine reported that Bali was a dirty and unsafe tourism destination.

“Rivers swell and flush their trash and frothing human waste into the sea off Kuta Beach, the island’s most famous tourist attraction, where bacteria bloom and the water turns muddy with dead plankton,” the report said.

It listed tap water shortages, blackouts, uncollected trash, overflowing sewage, traffic congestion and crime as major problems on the island. — JP