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)

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