Party time: Aussie visitors up 25% in Bali

Art on the beach: Body painting at the beach is one of the many attractions available to tourists.(Provided to The Jakarta Post by Bali Tourism Board)The number of Australians visiting the island of the gods has topped a half million in the first eight months of the year, up more than 25 percent from about 400,000 in the same period last year.

“Most tourists come through Ngurah Rai International Airport. Only 10,689 people came on cruise ships,” I Gede Suarsa, the chief of the Central Statistics Agency's (BPS) Bali office, said on Saturday as quoted by Antara news wire.

Australian tourists led the list of the island's visitors last year,comprising 21 percent of all arrivals. More than 640,000 Australians visited Bali last year, up 43 percent from around 446,000 in 2009,according to the BPS.