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Number of foreign tourists increases as Indonesia preps for peak season
Indonesia has welcomed 10,458,299 foreign tourists, a 25.05 percent increase from last year’s achievement.
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Step by step: Foreign tourists climb down the paddy terrace wall in Ceking. (JP/Anggara Mahendra)
T
he Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data shows that until September this year, Indonesia has welcomed 10,458,299 foreign tourists, a 25.05 percent increase from last year’s achievement.
“For the September period, it’s up by 20.47 percent from the same month last year,” told Tourism Ministry's deputy minister for overseas promotion I Gde Pitana.
In comparison, tourism growth in ASEAN region is only 6.5 percent and the worldwide growth is at five percent.
Pitana added that he’s optimistic the ministry will achieve its target of attracting 15 million foreign tourists by the end of this year.
Read also: Five travel trends to watch in 2018
The recent activity of Mount Agung in Bali that went on for more than a month from Sept. 23 to Oct. 29 resulted in the declining of tourist visits to Bali.
On Oct. 29, the Indonesian authorities lowered the alert status from Level 4 to Level 3.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said Bali is now ready to welcome tourists.
The ministry is currently busy promoting to countries such as China, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Japan for the year-end holiday season that runs from November 2017 to January 2018.
One of their efforts is conducting a familiarization trip (famtrip) to Bali for nine media companies from China.
Up until September 2017, China was the biggest contributor for foreign tourists who came to Indonesia with 1,607,615 people, a 45.68 percent increase. Other countries such as Japan contributed 416,040 people (up 6.46 percent), Australia had 918,957 people (up 1.38 percent), Malaysia had 885,412 people (down 0.16 percent) and Singapore had 1,067,242 people (up 0.36 percent). (kes)
