T

he government has said the 5.88 percent decline in foreign tourist arrivals in January, year-on-year, to 614,328 was due to the Chinese New Year celebrations and a desert storm in Australia, as people chose to stay in their home countries, spending time with their families.

Compared to December 2012, the figure decreased by 19.9 percent from 766,966.

Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry spokesman I Gusti Ngurah Putra said the number of Chinese tourists dropped by 37.19 percent, the highest drop, to 53,303 this year, followed by Taiwanese and Singaporeans with drops of 28.83 percent and 15.52 percent, respectively.

“This is the usual trend and the figures will increase again as people travel after the Chinese New Year celebrations end,” Ngurah told The Jakarta Post, adding that the number of tourists from Australia showed only a slight decrease of 1.92 percent.

He said the number of tourists from Indonesia’s traditional markets such as Germany, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea increased between 6 and 14 percent in January.

Japan recorded the highest increase among the countries surveyed by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) at 14.65 percent, followed by Malaysia and Germany with 8.23 percent and 6.67 percent, respectively.

Even though this was not enough to compensate for the missing Chinese, Singaporean, Taiwanese and Australian tourists, the figures helped Indonesia minimize the decline, he said.

The upcoming Internationale Tourismus Borse Berlin, known as the ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel expo, slated to take place on March 5–10, should help the country to bring in more tourists. Indonesia is the official partner country at the ITB Berlin this year, allowing the country to have more space for promotional activities in the expo, which is projected to attract 170,000 visitors from 180 countries.

The BPS data on Friday showed that the main gateway for tourist arrivals in the country, Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, recorded 229,561 visitors in the first month of 2013, down by 13.17 percent from 249,728 in the same period last year.

The highest decrease in arrivals was recorded at Entikong in West Kalimantan, which saw 1,368 foreign arrivals, a 55.89 percent drop from 2,324 in January last year.

Meanwhile, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, experienced a 9.21 percent decline in foreign arrivals to 160,998 throughout January 2013.

The data also showed that the aggregate star-hotel room occupancy rate in 20 provinces was 46.51 percent in January, a decrease of 4.74 points and 9.34 points from the same month last year, and December 2012, respectively.

In the first month of the year, Bali recorded the highest star-hotel room-occupancy rate of 57.57 percent, followed by East Kalimantan and Jakarta at 53.61 percent and 51.98 percent, respectively.