Tourist arrivals down after bombing incident: BPS

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Foreign tourist arrivals in September are almost certain to decline following the deadly bombing in front of the Australian Embassy on Sept. 9, as shown by preliminary data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"The average number of foreign visitors coming through the country's three major entry gates during the period before and after the explosion has dropped," BPS chief Choiril Maksum said on Friday when announcing the tourism figures for the month of August.

The average number of daily arrivals through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport fell by 21.9 percent from 2,964 during the period from Sept. 1 to Sept. 9 to 2,135 in the period from Sept. 9 to Sept. 22.

Meanwhile, arrivals at Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, Bali, were down by 3.1 percent to 4,735, while arrivals through Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, declined by 31 percent to 282.

The terrorist blast, which killed 10 people and injured hundreds of others, came after similar deadly attacks in Jakarta in 2003, and in Bali in 2002, both of which affected the country's key tourism sector, especially after a number of nations imposed travel advisories against Indonesia.

However, Choiril was unsure whether the drop in foreign tourist arrivals was triggered by the bombing or caused by seasonal factors.

"The number of foreign visitors usually drops during September because it's the end of their summer vacation season," he said.

Elsewhere, the agency reported that August's foreign tourist arrivals increased by 5.89 percent compared to July due to the fact that August is the peak season for foreign visitors.

The number of visitors rose to almost 500,000 from 424,800. During the first eight months of the year, the figure jumped by 29.79 percent to 3.01 million against 2.32 million in the same period last year.

The government is targeting 5 million foreign tourist arrivals this year.

As regards hotel occupancy levels, the agency reported that the average level in star-rated hotels in 10 major tourist destinations in July increased slightly from 47.44 percent in June to 49.21 percent.

Meanwhile, the average length of stay of foreign tourists in star-rated hotels during July was two days, down from 2.05 days in June.