Tourist arrivals down 3.55% in June

JAKARTA (JP): The number of tourists arriving in Indonesia decreased by 3.55 percent to 234,585 in June from 243,497 in the same month of last year.

Data from the Directorate General of Tourism show that last month's decrease in tourist arrivals occurred in three of the country's four main gates, including Jakarta, Bali and Medan. The other main gate is Batam in Riau, while the other entrances include airports in Manado of North Sulawesi and Surabaya of East Java.

The data, however, shows that the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia during the first semester of this year totaled 1,49 million, 16.72 percent higher than the 1.27 million in the same period last year.

In the first six months this year, Manado recorded the highest growth with 337.26 percent increase from 738 visitors last year to 3.227 this year. Several domestic and foreign airlines started direct flights to the city early this year.

However, the number of tourist arrivals in Medan, North Sumatra, fell by 1.38 percent to 86,745 in the January-June period from 85,550 in the same period last year.

Indonesia expects arrivals of 3.8 million visitors this year. (icn)