Foreign tourist arrivals expected to exceed target

Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said he was optimistic that the number of foreign tourists who visited Indonesia in 2010 would exceed the target of seven million.

"I am confident that the 7 million foreign tourist arrival target would be achieved or even exceeded," the minister said here on Monday.

He said that his optimism over the foreign tourist arrivals was based on the fact that the average arrivals of foreign tourists per month in the country at present was 12 - 13 percent.

The figure far exceeded the average number of foreign tourists arriving in Indonesia per month in 2009 which stood at 9 percent.

"Until the end of the year, we will at least have an average of 10 percent and this percentage already exceeds that of last year or that would mean that it would be over 7 million tourists," the minister said.

His side predicted that in December or at the end of the year the arrivals of foreign tourists in the country would jump up significantly.

"After all, December is a peak season, so that it could be ascertained that there would be significant increase in the number of foreign tourist arrivals," he said.

The minister said that his side would never stop carrying out promotion in a number of countries which became the focus of Indonesia`s tourism market.

The Central Board of Statistics (BPS) recorded that the number of foreign tourists arriving in Indonesia in August 2010 reached 586,530 or an increase of 3.48 percent if compared with that in the same month last year.

This amount declined by 10.93 percent compared with that in July this year.

On the accumulative basis from January to August 2010, the number of foreign tourists visiting in Indonesia was recorded at 4,625,550, or an increase of 12.12 percent compared with the same period a year earlier