Indonesia's Bali island continues to attract increasing number of foreign tourists despite the global economic downturn that affects many airlines and international tourist destinations, the Jakarta Globe quoted an official as saying on Monday. Ida Komang Wisnu, head of the Bali branch of Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said that a total of 870,029 foreign tourists visited Bali from January to May this year, up 9.76 percent from the same period last year, when the number of foreign visitors stood at 792,657. However, the January-to-May increase was not as significant as the total number of 2008, when 1,989,850 foreign tourists visited Bali, an increase of 19.40 percent from 1,668,531 in 2007. Wisnu said that there had been a sharp increase in the number of visitors from Russia. About 28,800 Russians visited Bali in the first five months of 2009, up 5.53 percent from the same period of a year earlier. 'Russia ranked 9th among the 10 top countries in terms of tourist arrivals,' said Wisnu. Bali is the country's main tourist destination for foreigners. The government initially set a target of attracting 8 million foreign visitors this year. However, the global economic downturn has prompted the government to lower this target to just 6.5 million this year. 