Foreign Tourist Arrivals Increased 15 Percent in First Quarter of 2017
Jakarta. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia showed a 15 percent increase in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to a statement by the Ministry of Tourism.
Indonesia welcomed 3.01 million foreign tourists in January-March this year, while the first quarter of 2016 saw 2.62 million, Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data revealed.
Data also showed that 1.02 million foreign tourists arrived in March compared to 915,200 in the same month last year. There was also a 6.68 percent increase in February this year compared to the same month last year.
However, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the latest number of foreign tourist arrivals still has not reached the ministry's targets as they hope to attract an average of 1.25 million tourists per month.
"Therefore we need to catch up for the rest of this year," the minister said.
Signs of Growth
"The growth of foreign tourist numbers in March were in most [points of entry into the country]," BPS head Suhariyanto said.
According to the report, the highest increase of foreign tourists was at Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi marking a 296.92 percent increase in March. Meanwhile, Adi Soetjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta marked an 82.06 percent increase and Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau marked a 62.92 percent increase.
"Meanwhile, Batam had the lowest tourist numbers with only 1.58 percent," Suhariyanto said.
The number of foreign tourists who entered Indonesia through the border checkpoints, known as PLB, improved. The checkpoints welcomed 40,320 tourists in March this year, up by 40.15 percent from the same period last year.
The growing number of foreign tourists has also impacted on the occupancy rate of rooms at hotels which grew 1.82 percent in March 2017 compared to the same period last year.
North Sulawesi scored the highest occupancy rate with 68.16 percent, followed by Central Kalimantan with 65.50 percent and Jakarta with 64.25 percent.
The lowest occupancy rate was in North Kalimantan, with only 25.96 percent of hotels occupied.
"The rise [of tourists staying at] hotels in March was seen in all provinces," Suhariyanto said.
Tourists still spend the most amount of time in Bali, spending about 3.11 days on average, followed by Papua with 2.77 days and North Sulawesi with 2.18 days.
"In March, foreign tourists stayed at hotels for an average length of 2.86 days, higher than domestic tourists who stayed at hotels for an average length of 1.73 days," Suhariyanto said.
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