Jakarta hosts more foreign tourists in September

Jakarta saw an increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting the city in September, dominated by Japanese and Malaysian nationals, due in part to the number of international events held here during the period.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in Jakarta announced Tuesday that the city had been visited by 175,329 foreign tourists in September entering via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Halim Perdanakusumah Airport and the Tanjung Priok seaport.

“The number grew by 18.47 percent compared to 147,999 visitors in August,” BPS Jakarta head Agus Suherman told reporters at his office in Central Jakarta.

“A number of international events held in September probably helped drive the number,” he added.

Jakarta hosted various international events and concerts in September, including the International Oil and Gas Exploration, Production and Refining Exhibition, the Java Soul Nation Festival and the Linkin Park concert.

“Japanese and Malaysian tourists still dominated with 18,994 and 18,756 visitors, respectively, followed by Chinese, Singaporean, Saudi Arabian, Dutch, Australian, South Korean, American and Taiwanese tourists,” he said.

The increase had also helped push the occupancy rates of star-rated hotels in the city, Agus said.

Star-rated hotels’ occupancy rates reached 55.18 percent in September, up by 4.2 percent from August and 6.77 percent over the corresponding period last year.

The length of stay for both foreign and domestic tourists at Jakarta’s star-rated hotels had also increased to an average of 2.08 days in September, up by 0.01 day compared to August.

Agus predicted that both the number of tourists and occupancy rates at star-rated hotels would increase significantly this month, as the Southeast Asian Games would kick off next week in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.

“The SEA Games will definitely help increase the number of tourists, improve hotel occupancy rates and thereby support the growth of the city’s economy. We will determine the results later this year,” he said.

BPS also announced that the city experienced deflation of 0.15 percent in October. Agus said that the biggest contributor to deflation was declining prices of clothing, which were down by 2.09 percent.

“The prices of food decreased by 0.36 percent, while prices for public transportation, communication and financial services, collectively decreased by 0.17 percent,” Agus said.

The price of gold jewelry, dropping by 0.24 percent, also contributed to deflation.

Agus said that Jakarta was 15th of the 32 cities that experienced deflation out of 66 cities surveyed. (swd)