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Indonesia sees 9.73 million visits in challenging year
The country recorded 9
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The country recorded 9.73 million foreign tourist arrivals last year, short of the government's 10 million target, after the sector was disrupted by haze and volcanic eruptions for a good part of the year.
The 2015 figure is around 3 percent higher from the 9.43 million visits recorded in 2014, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released on Monday. On a monthly basis, December's 913,800 visits reflected a 0.16 percent drop from the 915,300 visits recorded in December 2014.
'Without natural disasters, we could have reached 11 million foreign tourist arrivals,' said Rizki Handayani, the assistant deputy for Southeast Asian tourism promotion at the Tourism Ministry.
Natural phenomena disrupted tourism almost non-stop from July to December last year, from haze that affected areas such as Riau and Jambi, to several volcanic eruptions, such as those at Mount Raung and Mount Bromo in East Java. These incidents forced the closure of various airports.
The country estimates that visits lost to the eruptions and the haze reached around 650,000.
If taking into account foreign tourist arrivals through cross-border posts and those undertaking brief visits or day-trips, an additional figure of 677,409 visits would have been recorded, and a total of 10.4 million tourist visits booked throughout last year, a 10.2 percent increase from the previous year.
Such data has never been included before, but BPS head Suryamin said it was now covered by the statistics agency given the 'significance' of the number.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that the number of foreign tourists recorded last year would generate a positive psychological effect.
'Indonesia's growth in tourism is better than our competitor countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, although Thailand fared better with 23 percent growth,' he said in an official statement.
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's administration is targeting 20 million foreign tourist arrivals by the end of his tenure in 2019. The figure is expected to reach 12 million this year.
In doing so, the Jokowi administration has issued free-visa policy for 90 countries, with 84 more countries, including Australia and Brazil, to be added on the list soon. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli said the policy had yielded a 19 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals last year.
Indonesia Tour and Travel Agency Association (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar said he would have positive thoughts of Indonesia's achievements in tourism throughout 2015, despite the lacklustre data, given the challenges of the year.
'With the natural disasters, those should have affected our industry more,' he added.
He said that the ministry should focus on China and the Middle East this year to achieve this year's target. China is seen by many as an untapped market with some 130 million outbound trips expected to be made this year, a 10 percent rise year-on-year, according to data from the China Tourism Academy.
The ministry stated that it would continue developing the country's 10 emerging tourist destinations including Lake Toba in North Sumatra and Tanjung Lesung in Banten, in its move to boost Indonesian tourism. The Tourism Ministry hopes to form a single management system for each destination.
'Tassia Sipahutar contributed to the story
