Tourist arrivals down 10.27% in February

Tourist arrivals down 10.27% in February

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of foreign tourist arrivals in the country fell by
10.27 percent in February compared with the previous month after
the government implemented a new restrictive visa-on-arrival
policy during the month.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Thursday that
foreign tourist arrivals in February reached 321,576, compared
with 358,369 in January.

The BPS said that the visa-on-arrival policy had little impact
on the tourist sector, pointing out that cumulative foreign
tourist arrivals in the January to February period increased by
11 percent to around 680,000 compared with the same period last
year.

The agency did not explain the main reason for the February
decline, but a number of industry experts had previously warned
that the new visa policy, combined with rising political tension
ahead of this year's general elections, would reduce foreign
visitor arrivals.

The tourist sector has been a major contributor to the
development of the country's economy. This year, the government
expects foreign tourist arrivals to reach 5 million, higher than
the 4.4 million last year.

Elsewhere, BPS said that the number of foreign tourist
arrivals at the popular destination, Bali, in February declined
by 18.52 percent to around 89,300 from around 110,000 in January.

The BPS also reported that the hotel occupancy rate at the
country's 10 major tourist destinations averaged 43.31 percent in
January, or a 2.8 percent decline from the 45.99 percent in
December last year.

The agency said that the average length of stay of foreign
tourists in the country during the month of January was 2.04
days, compared with 1.99 days in December.