Yogyakarta gets fewer tourists

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The number of foreign and domestic tourists visiting the city, a traditional tourist destination, slumped 25 percent last year over 1996 due to the crisis, the provincial tourist office said over the weekend.

M. Ikmal said foreign tourist arrivals dropped to 277,847 visitors last year, from 351,542 the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of domestic tourists visiting the city plunged to 638,552 last year, from 901,575 in 1996.

Ikmal said the drop was the first in the past five years. In 1993, foreign tourist arrivals in the province reached 299,433, increasing to 323,194 in 1994 and 344,265 the following year.

Domestic tourist arrivals reached 837,265 in 1995, an increase from 640,801 in 1994 and 610,818 in 1993.

Despite the drop-off in arrivals, Ikmal said the number of star-rated hotel rooms in the province increased by 33.2 percent last year, to 3,492 rooms last year from 2,621 in 1996.

The number of non-star rated hotel rooms also increased by 4 percent, to 5,806 rooms last year from 5,580 in 1996.

But the hotel occupancy rate dropped to 45.07 percent last year, from 47.78 percent in 1996.

He said the Prambanan temple was the favorite tourist site in the vicinity for foreign tourists last year. Domestic tourists chose Parangtritis beach as their top destination in Yogyakarta.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board (BPPI) announced yesterday it would hold the fifth Tourism Indonesia Mart and Expo, in cooperation with Indonesia Tourism Industry Society and the Jakarta city administration, in Jakarta in September.

The mart will be held at the Jakarta Convention Center on Sept. 22 - Sept. 26. Airlines, tour operators and hotels are expected to participate.

The chairperson of the event's organizing committee, Wuryastuti Sunario, said the exhibition was intended to help Indonesian tourist firms sell their products.

"We could not sell Indonesian tourist products if we cancel this exhibition because most of our tourist companies cannot afford to join an overseas travel mart anymore."

She said the organizer would lower the rental price of stands and charge in rupiah instead of the U.S dollar for local participants, but foreign firms would continue to be charged in dollars. (23/gis)