BPS data reveals tourism woes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said on Monday that the regional spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had taken a heavy toll on the Indonesian tourism industry.

A report from the agency revealed that the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesian feel by 29 percent, from 288,417 in March to 204,565 in April, due to the outbreak of the pneumonia-like illness in Singapore and other countries in Asia.

"There were less tourist arrivals at the country's 13 main points of entry. For example, in Bali, the main tourist destination, the number of arrivals plummeted by 23.98 percent to 58,900 from 77,500 a month earlier," said Slamet Mukeno, BPS deputy chairman for economic statistics.

The report said that all the 13 main gateways saw substantial decreases in tourist arrivals. Only two main gateways, Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta and Mataram port in West Nusa Tenggara, recorded a rise in tourist arrivals in April -- by 10.06 percent and 2.03 percent, respectively.

During the first four months of 2003, the number of tourists arriving in the country dropped by 19.54 percent to 1.06 million, from 1.32 million in the same period last year, the report said.

The BPS report painted a bleaker picture of the tourist industry compared to a recent report from the office of the State Minister for Culture and Tourism, which estimated that in the period from January to April, the number of foreign tourist arrivals reached 1,240,640.