Foreign Tourists Arrivals up 12.34% in October

The number of international tourists arrival to Indonesia for October 2014 recorded a significant growth of 12.34%, from 719,903 in the same period last year to 808,767. The data were released by the National  Statistics Bureau (BPS) on Monday, 1^st December 2014.

Head of the National  Statistic Bureau, Suryamin revealed that a total of 7.75 million international tourists visited various destinations across the Indonesian Archipelago during the period of January-October 2014. The number indicates an increase of 8.71% from the 7.13 million tourists recorded in the same period in  2013.

Suryamin also explained that the country’s main tourist gateway, Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, recorded the highest increase in arrivals in October, with a 27.3 percent rise in visitors to 339,200 from 266,453 passengers in the same month the previous year.

“Meanwhile, cumulatively (from January to October 2014), Lombok International Airport in West Nusa Tenggara recorded the highest growth in the number of international tourists with a significant  118.77 percent jump [compared to the same period last year),” added Suryamin.

However, the country’s main gateway, Soekarno Hatta International Airport, at the outskirts of Jakarta recorded a 7.41% decline in international tourists in October. Suryamin said that BPS data showed that 177,274 international tourists entered Indonesia via Soekarno Hatta in October 2014, down from 191,460 tourists in the same month in 2013.

This year, the government has set a target of 9.5 million international tourists arrival to Indonesia. The new Government under President Joko Widodo aims to reach 10 million international tourists by next year and 20 million international tourists by 2020 through more active use of ICT and better inter-island and inter-destinations connectivity. (Indonesia.travel)