H

eated debate over the recent executions of eight foreign nationals apparently had no affect on tourism in Jakarta as the capital city saw an increase in foreign tourist arrivals in March.

The Jakarta Statistics Agency released data boasting a high increase in the number of foreign tourist arrivals during the first quarter of the year.

The tourists entered through three gates; namely Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta and Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta, The city recorded 208,180 foreign tourists arrivals in March, a 16.87 percent increase from 178,124 in February. The figure showed a 2.05 percent increase compared to the corresponding period last year.

Agency head Nyoto Widodo said that the increase was rather unusual, considering that the first quarter of a year was usually slow.

'€œThe number of foreign tourist arrivals usually hovers between 10 percent and 15 percent. Such an increase is quite unusual for the first quarter of a year because the peak travel season was at the end of last year,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Foreign tourist arrivals in Jakarta were dominated by Indonesia'€™s major tourism markets, Malaysia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, followed by South Korea, the US, India, Taiwan and Australia.

'€œInitially, we indeed expected a decrease in the number of Australian tourists visiting Jakarta [because of the executions of drug convicts], but tourist numbers have not been affected,'€ Jakarta Tourism Agency head Purba
Hutapea said.

Purba attributed the increase to various events, including festivals and conferences that were held in Jakarta.

The hotel industry also benefited from the high tourist arrivals as it enjoyed an increase in hotel occupancy to 56.82 percent in March from 52.32 percent in February.

'€” JP/Sita W. Dewi