Yogyakarta Tourism Industry Performance Falls at Start of Year
Entering the beginning of 2026, the tourism industry in the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY) recorded a weakening performance, as indicated by declines in visitor numbers, transport activity, and hotel occupancy, according to the DIY Province Office of Statistics (BPS DIY) on Wednesday 4 March 2026.
Acting Head of BPS DIY, Endang Tri Wahyuningsih, disclosed that in January 2026 there were only 6,791 international tourist visits through Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA).
“International tourist visits at the start of this year fell by 15.29 percent compared with December 2025, which reached 8,017 visits,” she said.
Although monthly declines occurred, Endang explained that the January 2026 figure was actually 1.10 percent higher than the same period in January 2025.
A similar downward trend occurred for domestic tourists, with journeys to DIY recorded at 3,530,043 in January 2026, down 8.84 percent from December 2025’s 3,872,440 journeys.
In this context, Sleman Regency remained the main magnet for DIY tourism, contributing 35.08 percent or 1,238,176 domestic tourism trips, followed by the City of Yogyakarta with 903,711 trips.
Endang noted that the dip in visits directly affected hotel occupancy rates for star-rated hotels in Yogyakarta, which plummeted by 15.61 percentage points to 50.77 percent. The deepest reduction was in 4-star hotels, which fell by 18.11 points. Meanwhile non-star hotels and other accommodations posted an occupancy rate of 25.56 percent, down 3.71 percentage points from the month before.
The average length of stay at star-rated hotels in DIY also contracted to 1.49 nights, with foreign guests averaging 2.19 nights compared with domestic guests at 1.46 nights.
Total guests staying in star-rated hotels declined by 19.50 percent to 465,491, driven by a 20.07 percent drop in domestic guests, although foreign guests rose slightly by 1.48 percent.
This tourism sector condition aligns with the transport sector, which also saw a significant drop in passenger numbers.
Endang said that the number of domestic air passenger departures in January 2026 was 154,548, down 16.12 percent from December 2025. Arrivals by domestic air travel fell even more sharply, down 22.02 percent to 143,951.
“Domestic air passenger departures in January 2026 were down 16.12 percent from the previous month, as were arrivals, down 22.02 percent,” Endang said.
She elaborated that YIA Airport continued to dominate domestic passenger movement, contributing 95.33 percent of departures and 95.54 percent of arrivals.
Although the domestic sector was weak, international flights showed positive performance with an increase in outbound passengers of 7.78 percent to 15,905 and an increase in inbound passengers of 7.17 percent to 16,377 through routes to Singapore and Malaysia.
Activity in the rail transport sector also declined, recording a 12.24 percent drop in outbound passengers to 1,036,967, affecting long-distance passengers, commuters such as KRL and Prameks, and Bandara (Airport) trains. The sharpest drop in rail arrivals occurred among executive class passengers, down 24.74 percent.
In addition to people mobility, the logistics sector was affected, with cargo loaded by rail down 7.80 percent to 28,833 tonnes due to lower loads of fuel and parcel shipments.
Regarding domestic air cargo, although the tonnage loaded fell 4.42 percent to 844.92 tonnes, the volume of cargo unloaded rose slightly by 0.16 percent to 208.46 tonnes at the start of the year.