Foreign tourist arrivals up in June

Foreign tourist arrivals up in June

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of tourists arriving in Indonesia significantly
increased in June compared to the previous month, raising hopes
that the country's tourism industry is indeed on the track to
recovery.

The number of foreign tourists arriving here in June reached
299,856, up 34.78 percent from 222,500 in May.

However, the June figure was a 20.35 percent decrease from the
June 2002 figure according to the Central Statistics Agency
(BPS).

BPS said the number of foreign tourists arriving in the first
half of the year totaled 1.58 million, down by 23.04 percent from
2.06 million in the first half of last year.

"Foreign tourists' interest in Indonesia has been improving.
We hope it will further improve in the coming months," BPS's
deputy for economic statistics Slament Mukeno said on Friday.

Tourist arrivals in the country plunged to a historic low late
last year after the Oct. 12, 2002 bombing in Bali, which claimed
more than 200 lives, mostly Australian tourists.

While the government was seeking to revive tourists'
confidence in the country the industry suffered more blows in the
aftermath of the Iraq war and the outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) disease.

BPS said the Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar reported the
highest increase with 65.75 percent more tourist's arriving in
June, compared to May. The Adi Sumarno airport, Yogyakarta, and
the Juanda airport in Surabaya recorded the second and third
highest increases of 47.06 percent and 46.17 percent
respectively.

The agency said that the occupancy rate of starred hotels in
the ten main tourist areas averaged 40.54 percent in May,
marginally higher than 39.27 percent in April.

But the average length tourists stayed in starred hotels had
dropped to just 1.95 days in May, down from 2.06 days in April.

Bali, the country's most popular destination, recorded that
tourists in May stayed for an average 3.7 days; in Jakarta
tourists stayed for an average of 2.11 days.

Prior to the Bali bombing, tourist arrivals in Indonesia had
reached about 5 millions per year.