Foreign tourist arrivals up in October

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of foreign tourists entering through the 13 entry points across the country in October reached 356,075, up 2.85 percent from 346,209 last month, according to the Central Statistic Agency (BPS) on Monday.

The October figure is 16.82 percent higher than the number of tourist arrivals in October last year.

"This means the tourist industry demonstrated positive progress during the month. This is supported by the continued improvement in security conditions after the JW Marriott bombing," the agency said.

From January to October this year, Indonesia received 3.02 million foreign tourists, 15.4 percent less than the 3.57 million over the same period of last year.

The agency also reported that star-rated hotels' occupancy rates in 10 tourist cities in September averaged 45.15 percent, up from 44.31 percent in August.

However, the average length of stay in those hotels decreased from 2.04 days in August to 1.92 days in September.

Despite the Bali bombing commemoration held in Bali in October, hotel occupancy rates on the island dropped from 47.64 percent to 46.08 percent for the month.

Tourism has been hard hit by the terrorist attacks on Bali in October last year and the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August this year. This has discouraged many travelers from coming to Indonesia. The situation was aggravated by the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the U.S.-led attack on Iraq in the middle of this year.

The Asia-Pacific tourism officials on Sunday expressed fears that the industry will face another difficult year ahead amid continuing worries about health issues and the threat of terrorism.