Tourist numbers down in February: BPS

Tourist numbers down in February: BPS

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The number of tourists arriving through the country's 13 main
entry points was down in February from the same period the
previous year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said.

In February, 309,006 travelers visited Indonesia, a nearly 10
percent drop from the 321,576 visitors recorded the previous
year, BPS reported on Friday.

Tourist figures for the first two months of the year were down
slightly to some 657,000 visitors from 679,900 in the same period
in 2004, or about 3.28 percent lower.

The beaches of Bali, however, proved impossible to resist,
with 105,402 tourist arrivals on the resort island in February,
from fewer than 90,000 the previous year.

Investment island Batam saw a drop in the number of foreign
guests to 83,677 in February, from 123,263 in the same period in
2004.

According to a BPS analysis, the government's visa-on-arrival
policy had little to do with the decline in tourist figures.

The controversial visa policy was introduced in February last
year, cutting the number of countries eligible for visa-on-
arrival from 60 to 21. The government waives visas for tourists
from nine other countries -- mostly members of the Association of
the Southeast Asian Nations -- on the basis of reciprocity.

State Minister for Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik has said the
government is considering granting more countries the visa-on-
arrival facility.

The average length of stay of foreigner tourists in star-rated
hotels also declined in January this year to 3.44 days, compared
to 3.63 days in the same period the previous year. Foreign
tourists stayed an average of one day longer in star-rated hotels
in North Sumatra and East Java, while they stayed a day less in
West Sumatra, Central Java and Yogyakarta.

Indonesia's tourist sector has struggled since the Bali
bombings in 2002.

An explosion in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta
last October proved to be another blow, prompting the U.S., the
United Kingdom and Australia to issue travel warnings for the
country.

The tourism office hopes to attract six million visitors from
abroad this year. According to government data, 5.3 million
people traveled from abroad to the archipelago last year,
generating approximately US$5.3 billion in foreign exchange.