Agoda - headquartered in Singapore but with its largest operational office in Bangkok - as an Asia-focused online travel agency since its founding in 2005. As one of the world’s fastest growing online travel agents (OTAs), it has revealed its top city destinations among travellers across the world in 2018.
According to the company's booking data collated from January 1 to November 11 2018, 
Why would Bali, instead of Denpasar as the Bali province's capital, be on the list?
List of Agoda's Top Destination in 2018 Source: Agoda press website
Bali is the most popular island holiday destination in the Indonesian archipelago. Home to an ancient culture known for its warm hospitality, the island's top attractions include exotic temples and palaces set against stunning natural backdrops.
For Australians, Indonesia itself - together with China, Thailand, India and Japan - features amongst the most popular destinations for Australian travellers, according to the released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
"Indonesia has long been a favourite destination for Australians, and more than 90,000 of us returned from short term trips to Indonesia in March," ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Myles Burleigh said.
Bali has become the main spot for foreign tourists visiting in Indonesia. Based on the from the Bali Provincial Statistics Bureau in 2017, as many as 14,039,799 foreign tourists visited Indonesia with more than 40 per cent visiting Bali.
Sunset at Seminyak Beach Bali, Indonesia Source: Getty Images
With a large number of foreign tourists visiting Bali, the Indonesian government does have some concern that the island and province is more famous than the country in which it is located.
Judi Rifajantoro, the Special Staff for Access and Infrastructure of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism told SBS Indonesian that the number of Australian tourists visiting Indonesia has been stagnant in the past two years.
"It seems that from the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism or from the Indonesian tourism industry should provide other attractive alternatives," he said. "So far they only know Bali, even though we have a lot of other (destinations). Now this seems that these haven't been socialised yet ... haven't been massively marketed."
Do people at large know that Bali is 'only' an island as well as a province in Indonesia?
Daniel Gerber, a Melbourne-based traveller, on why Australians mostly visit Bali instead of other areas in Indonesia.
"In my experience Australians that go there are often the sort who don't travel much," said Gerber. "As one of our foreign ministers said a while ago of all the teenagers who go there for "schoolies", many of them don't even know which country they're in."
SBS Indonesian has contacted Agoda on this matter but the company hasn't given their comment yet.
Agoda's list of the top destinations for travellers from Asia Pacific Source: Agoda press website
