Eighty pct of foreign tourists coming to RI `repeat` visitors

The culture and tourism ministry estimates that around 80 percent or 4.4 million of the 5.51 million foreign tourists who came to Indonesia in 2007 were 'repeat' visitors.

Based on these data it was concluded that most of the tourists coming to Indonesia were "loyal" ones or those who had become fond of Indonesia, the head of the ministry's Data Management and Networking System Center, Hari Waluyo, said here on Thursday.

The repeat visitors were mostly from Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Australia, he said.

Meanwhile, Tourism and Culture Minister Jero Wacik told members of Parliament's Commission X recently that a total 5.5 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year.

Topping the list of countries where the tourists came from was Singapore with 1.46 million tourists, followed by Malaysia (941,202 tourists), Japan (593,784), Australia (313,881), South Korea (423,098), China (335,172), Europe (528,171), the United States (154,846), India (151,704), Middle East (45,735), and Thailand (24,735).

Indonesia earned US$5.3 billion in foreign exchange from the 5.5 million foreign tourists, the highest figure reached in the past 10 years.

For 2008, Indonesia has set itself the target of attracting seven million foreign tourists and earning a total of US$6.7 billion in foreign exchange from them, Jero Wacik said.