America's increased interest in Bali

Guess what? Bali is on the top 50 International destinations that Americans visited in 2014! Based on the research carried out by Hotels.com, Bali is at the #45 position, beating Taipei, Quebec, and even Rio de Janeiro. Bali wasn't even on the list in 2013. However, Bali is still less famous from its neighboring countries like Bangkok (#12) and Singapore (#17).

50 Most Popular International Cities for Americans
City	Country	FY 2014 vs FY 2013 Change	City [Province]	Country	FY 2014 vs FY 2013 Change
1. London	United Kingdom	No Change	26. Munich	Germany	-1
2. Paris	France	No Change	27. Sydney	Australia	+5
3. Toronto	Canada	No Change	28. Prague	Czech Republic	-1
4. Rome	Italy	No Change	29. Copenhagen	Denmark	+7
5. Vancouver	Canada	No Change	30. Beijing	China	-2
6. Cancun/Riviera Maya	Mexico	+4	31. Panama City	Panama	+3
7. Montreal	Canada	+1	32. Milan	Italy	+3
8. Hong Kong	Hong Kong	-1	33. Buenos Aires	Argentina	No Change
9. Tokyo	Japan	-3	34. Carolina	Puerto Rico	-3
10. Barcelona	Spain	-1	35. Vienna	Austria	-5
11. Niagara Falls	Canada	No Change	36. Los Cabos	Mexico	-7
12. Bangkok	Thailand	No Change	37. Bogota	Colombia	No Change
13. Amsterdam	Netherlands	No Change	38. Vallarta	Mexico	+7
14. San Juan	Puerto Rico	No Change	39. Athens	Greece	No Change
15. Mexico City	Mexico	+3	40. Punta Cana	Dominican Republic	+2
16. Madrid	Spain	No Change	41. Edinburgh	United Kingdom	+6
17. Singapore	Singapore	+4	42. Calgary	Canada	+1
18. Florence	Italy	-1	43. Sao Paulo	Brazil	-3
19. Dubai	United Arab Emirates	-4	44. Stockholm	Sweden	New to List
20. Istanbul	Turkey	+2	45. Bali	Indonesia	New to List
21. Venice	Italy	-2	46. Taipei	Taiwan	-2
22. Dublin	Ireland	-2	47. Quebec	Canada	+2
23. Seoul	South Korea	+3	48. Rio De Janeiro	Brazil	-10
24. Berlin	Germany	No Change	49. Lima	Peru	New to List
25. Shanghai	China	-2	50. Frankfurt	Germany	-9

Travel here for the complete the article: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/where-did-americans-travel-most-in-2014-300027922.html 

Now I'm quite curious, what made this sudden jump? I did noticed the rising trend of American readers on my blog posts though, as they're now excels the numbers of my Indonesian readers in an almost 2:1 composition, but couldn't really find out why?

Anything got to do with this movie perhaps?

Eat Pray Love

Image courtesy of imdb.com

While the movie was released in 2010, but many agrees that it has brought wave after wave of foreigners looking to find their own slice of "Eat, Pray, Love" in the town of Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

According to Mark Johanson from IBT:

“Eat, Pray, Love” might have had something to do with it. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-absorbed prose flock to Ubud each year in search of a prince, a medicine man and a remedy for their own idiosyncrasies. Locals here jokingly call them EPLs, and they've made Ubud something of a sponge soaking up lost souls.

A Rich Startup Ground

Outside of the spiritual and romantic reasons though, Ubud is also a good ground to develop your startup business. That's because you can both retreat from the current box that you live in, without having to let your startup business crumbles into chaos when you're doing so.

With the advent of good internet connection, and a creative collaboration ground like Hubud, Ubud has also quickly known as a place for entrepreneurs to start or grow whatever business that you want to create, especially since you can still develop it while you're away in the Eastern heaven of Ubud.

Ubud has quickly garnered a reputation the world over as the ultimate expat haven. Ubud is a laidback slice of tropical paradise where location independent workers and professional vagabonds gather en mass to get back in touch with nature, retreat into yoga and gorge on fresh fruits and vegetables for a fraction of the cost back home.

Why work in a comfort of a wall-facing work desk, when you can work while enjoying the rice paddy views with 50 shades of green? (byms)