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)