Tourism Continues to Rise in Indonesia

Indonesia’s tourism continued to pick up in the first semester of this year despite a travel warning issued by the United States on April 17, which it was feared would have a significant effect on foreign tourist arrivals.

The number of overseas tourists coming to Indonesia amounted to 2.14 million people in the first semester of this year, which was 12.22 percent higher compared to the same period last year at 1.91 million people.

“June is usually the peak season for foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia as the northern hemisphere has its summer,” Central Statistics Agency (BPS) head Rusman Heriawan told reporters during the BPS’s monthly briefing in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Rusman added that the number of foreign tourists arriving in Bali, the country’s most popular tourist destination, amounted to about 151,000 in June, an increase of 30.8 percent compared to June last year, and an increase of 11.7 percent over the 135,000 recorded in May.

He said the figures showed that the travel warning did not have a significant effect on the growth in tourist arrivals.

“American tourists, who are usually the most demanding, only accounted for about 59,000 out of the total 2.14 million foreign tourists in the first semester,” he said.

In general, Rusman said, Indonesian tourism would not be badly affected by the recent travel warnings from the U.S. and Australia — issued in early July — or the recent ban on Indonesian airlines by the European Union (EU) and the United Arab Emirates (EAU).

He argued that the reason was because the number of tourists from these countries was far lower than the numbers coming from neighboring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia.

“Singapore is the biggest contributor to tourism in terms of numbers. The total figure almost reached half a million people over the course of the semester,” Rusman said.

He said the reason for this was because Singapore was close to Batam and Bintan.

“The Singaporeans usually come on Saturday, mostly to Batam or Bintan, to spend their weekends their or just to shop,” he said.
The second biggest contributor was Malaysia, with a total of 283,000 people.

“Malaysian tourist are of better `quality’ than Singaporean tourists as they spend more time here due to cultural ties and their long relationship with Indonesia,” he said.

Japanese tourists were also quality tourists, he said, with the total number of Japanese visiting Indonesia amounting to about 215,000 in the first semester.

Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) examined a Garuda Indonesia aircraft and concluded that the carrier was safe.

Garuda has been classified as unsafe by the European Commission and banned from flying to the region, along with 50 other Indonesian airlines. This decision was then followed by the UAE.

Andi Haswidi