RI forex earnings from tourists drop

JAKARTA (JP): The country's foreign exchange earnings from foreign tourists dropped 5.3 percent in April to US$398.8 million, down from April 1996, Minister of Information Harmoko said here yesterday.

The drop was the first this year.

The total foreign exchange receipts increased 1.8 percent to $1.6 billion in the Jan-April period, up from Jan-April 1996, the minister said.

But the minister did not disclose the number of foreign tourist arrivals in April.

Harmoko said the capital's Soekarno-Hatta airport continued to be the country's major entry point for foreign tourists in the January-April period, booking 38.1 percent of the total foreign tourist arrivals, followed by the Ngurah Rai airport in the island of Bali (27.4 percent) and the Batam island (26 percent).

He said the three major entry points recorded 91.5 percent of total foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia during the first four months of 1997. The figure dropped 2 percent compared with the same period in 1996, Harmoko said.

Foreign visitors to Indonesia reached 371,311 in March, up 5.4 percent from March last year. The number of foreign tourist arrivals rose 4.3 percent in January and 3.4 percent in February.

In the first three months of 1997, foreign tourists spent $1.21 billion, up from $1.15 billion in the same period last year.

The number of tourists visiting Indonesia through Soekarno- Hatta airport dropped in March by 11.6 percent to 123,500, down from 139,633 in March 1996. Tourist arrivals through Jakarta also dropped in January and February, with drops of 2.2 percent and 7.7 percent respectively.

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 tourists this year.

Harmoko said yesterday that the country would see 51 new hotels with 10,383 rooms this year.

He said the additional hotels were located in Jakarta, West Java, East Java, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bali, North Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and Irian Jaya.

There would also be a number of tourist resorts opened in West Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and Lampung. (icn)