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Foreign tourists surge in Q1 but number still far below pre-pandemic level
The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia surged in this first quarter, but remained below pre-pandemic level.
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Local and foreign tourists snorkel in the Red Sea waters above a coral reef near Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula on Sept. 29, 2021. (AFP/Khaled Desouki)
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oreign tourists visiting Indonesia in the first quarter of 2023 surged by more than 500 percent year-on-year (yoy), Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show, marking a huge improvement after the easing of pandemic restrictions.
BPS head Margo Yuwono said on Tuesday 2.24 million foreign tourists visited in the first quarter, which was already 41.08 percent of the total foreign tourist visits in 2022.
However, he noted the figure was still a long way from reaching pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, there were approximately 3.75 million foreign tourists within the first quarter.
“The total number of foreign tourist visits from January to March 2023 is still 40.2 percent lower than the same period of 2019 or before the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Margo.
COVID-19 hit Indonesian tourism hard with the country only managing to attract around 11 million foreign tourists between 2020 and 2022, while 16 million visits took place in the full year of 2019.
Nevertheless, Margo said visitor numbers were improving and gradually recovering. In the first quarter of 2021 and 2022, there were less than 400,000 visitors each year.
Malaysian tourists represent the most visits in the first quarter this year with 363,000 visits, marking a lion’s share of 16.2 percent, followed by tourists from Singapore, Australia and Timor-Leste with a 12.6, 12.5 and 8.5 percent share, respectively.
