Foreign tourist arrivals up 14.57%

Foreign tourist arrivals up 14.57%

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Foreign tourist arrivals increased by 14.57 percent in May, with
the country's largely peaceful election process being credited
for the rise, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said on
Thursday.

The agency said the number of foreign visitors during the
month rose to more than 369,000 from over 322,000 in the previous
month.

During the first five months of this year, the number of
foreign visitors jumped by 34.32 percent to 1.73 million compared
to 1.28 million in the same period of last year, the BPS report
said.

"The Indonesian tourism sector has shown a strong improvement
during the past five months. In the same period last year,
foreign tourist arrivals declined sharply because of the Bali
bombing, the SARS epidemic, and the U.S. attack on Iraq," the BPS
report says.

The government is targeting 5 million foreign tourist this
year, compared to 4.4 million last year.

A number of experts have said peaceful elections would bode
well for the tourist sector.

The country in April conducted the legislative election and on
Monday will hold its first direct presidential election. A
second round will be held in September for the top-two polling
candidates if no candidate wins an outright majority on Monday.

Their had been fears earlier the country's election process
would be marred by violence.

Tourism is a major foreign exchange earner for Indonesia, the
biggest economy in Southeast Asia, and the sector employs a large
number of people.

On occupancy, the BPS said the average rate of star-rated
hotels in 10 major tourist destination areas in April rose
slightly, by 0.32 percent to 43.56 percent, from 43.24 percent in
March.

The average length of stay of foreign tourists in star-rated
hotels during the month was about 2.18 days, the same as in
March. -- JP