Foreign tourist arrivals up 3.4%

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign visitors to Indonesia in February rose to 315,407, up 3.4 percent on February last year, according to a Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications report.

The report said the growth rate was 4.3 percent in January 1997.

The figure is for foreigners entering Indonesia through seven major entry points. These are Entikong, the Indonesia-Malaysia border crossing in West Kalimantan, and airports in Jakarta, Bali, Medan, Batam, Surabaya and Manado.

The report said Indonesia earned US$386.03 million in foreign exchange from the arrivals, up 3.4 percent from $373.5 million in February 1996.

In the first two months of this year, Indonesia earned $756.25 million from international arrivals, up 3.8 on the same period last year.

The report said growth slowed in February because of a drop in arrivals through three of the seven entry points.

The three entry gateways which fewer arrivals were Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport (down 7.7 percent to 102,430), Surabaya's Juanda airport (down 13.2 percent) and Entikong (down 66.8 percent).

Last October, a riot rocked Situbondo, a small town near Surabaya.

There were also major riots in several other towns in Java and West Kalimantan.

Last year foreign arrivals rose 17 percent to five million, bringing in $5.13 billion in foreign exchange.

Indonesia expects to earn between $7.2 billion and $7.8 billion from between 5.3 million and 5.7 million foreign arrivals this year. (icn)