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Indonesia fails to attract more Chinese visitors despite ambitious target
Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia declined by 5.28 percent to 1.77 million during the first 10 months of the year from 1.87 million in the same period of 2018.
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Tourists visit Rumah Gadang, a traditional Minangkabau house Payakumbuh, West Sumatra. (Shutterstock.com/shahreen/File)
T
he number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia has been on the decline in recent months despite the government’s ambition to attract 10 million tourists from the world’s second-largest economy.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced on Tuesday that the number of Chinese visiting Indonesia declined by 5.28 percent to 1.77 million during the first 10 months of the year from 1.87 million in the same period of 2018.
BPS head Suhariyanto told reporters that the decline in the number of tourist arrivals from China might have been caused by its government’s efforts to boost its domestic tourism amid the slowing down of its economy.
According to Reuters, with its cooling economy, mainland Chinese tourists are cutting back on trips and spending abroad with a weaker yuan, political turmoil in Hong Kong and global tensions dampening their enthusiasm to travel too far from home. Many local governments across the country had ramped up tourism campaigns and promises of cheaper holidays in the run-up to the National Day holidays this year.
Suhariyanto said that China remained the second-largest contributor to Indonesia’s foreign tourist arrivals after Malaysia with 2.58 million tourists in the January-October period, followed by Singapore with 1.55 million, Australia with 1.15 million and Timor Leste with 1.02 million. In October, the number of tourist arrivals from China declined by 12.5 percent to 160,400 from 183,400 in the same month of 2018.
Chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Expert Association Azril Azhari told The Jakarta Post that Indonesia might fail to achieve its target of attracting 18 million foreign tourists in 2019.
“Indonesia will most likely bring in a maximum of 17 million tourists this year,” he said.
