Tourist numbers down in April, BPS reports

Tourist numbers down in April, BPS reports

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the advent of the low season, the number of foreign tourists
arriving through Indonesia's 13 main entry points fell by almost
4 percent in April, after rising by more than 11 percent in
March, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Wednesday.

In its latest statistical survey of the country's tourism
sector, the agency reported that 333,694 travellers had visited
Indonesia in April, down from the 345,694 visitors recorded the
previous month.

Given the latest figures, the country's tourism sector will
have a lot of work to do before it can be said that this year has
been a success, as the cumulative total of foreign tourists up to
the end of April only stands at 1,337,310 visitors, down 1.41
percent from the 1,356,382 recorded in the same period last year.

The tourism ministry had targeted six million visitors from
abroad for this year. Last year, 5.3 million foreign tourists
traveled to the archipelago, generating some US$5.3 billion in
foreign exchange.

Indonesia's tourism sector has been in the doldrums since the
Bali terrorist bombings in 2002, and the bombing of the JW
Marriott Hotel and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in recent
years.

At the same time, a series of SARS and bird flu epidemics in
the region, as well as the recent Asian tsunami disaster late
last year, only made things worse.

The problem has been exacerbated by the new visa regime, which
requires tourists from many countries to obtain visas in their
home countries before traveling to Indonesia. The permitted
length of stay in Indonesia has also been reduced.

Nevertheless, tourism associations are still upbeat about
Indonesia's tourism potential, saying the sector is on a recovery
track and that Bali will be able to attract tourists diverting
from neighboring countries affected by the disaster.

Indeed, the BPS reported that the resort island of Bali
continued to be the archipelago's main tourist magnet, recording
a slight increase in the number of visitors to 122,339 in April
from 121,457 in March.

Tourist arrivals in North Sulawesi's Manado are also
continuing to increase, with a 24.42 percent rise in foreign
tourist arrivals in April. The province, popular for offshore
snorkeling at the Bunaken islands, saw 1,353 visitors last month,
up from 1,089 people in March.

All other main destinations in the country, including the
capital Jakarta and the investment island Batam, saw a decline in
their foreign visitors.

Similarly, both the average length of stays by foreign
tourists and the occupancy rate in star-rated hotels in the
country recorded declines.

The average length of stay of foreigner tourists in star-rated
hotels in 10 tourist destinations throughout the country dropped
to 2.05 days in March, as compared to 1.95 days in the same
period the previous month.

The hotel occupancy rate, meanwhile, fell to an average of
44.51 percent, from 46.48 percent in February.