Foreign tourist arrivals up in October

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.