Tourist arrivals to RI decline

Tourist arrivals to RI decline

JAKARTA (JP): Tourist arrivals in Indonesia dropped 2.19
percent in August to 374,900 people due to security worries
during the Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly
held in the same month, according to data issued by the Central
Bureau of Statistics (BPS).

The fall in tourist arrivals was most noticeable at the port
of Tanjung Pinang in Riau with a drop of 14.78 percent, followed
by Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta with 13.21
percent, and Polonia International Airport, Medan with 5.7
percent.

On the other hand, tourist arrivals increased through Batam,
Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, Entikong bus station in
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Adi Sumarmo Airport in Solo, Central
Java, Tabing Airport in Padang, West Sumatra, and Mataram, the
BPS said in a statement.

Bali, Indonesia's number one tourist destination, suffered a
decrease of 0.2 percent in tourist arrivals in August compared to
the previous month, it said.

The number of foreign arrivals from January to August rose by
4.3 percent to 2.7 million people compared to the same period
last year.

Tourism officials said that the fact that the annual assembly
passed off peacefully would encourage more foreign tourists to
visit Indonesia. (10)