Jakarta, Sept 3 (Antara) - The number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia appears unaffected by the current global economic gloom and is evident from the data provided by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) for the January-July 2015 period.
According to the BPS, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in the first seven months of 2015 increased 2.69 percent to 5.47 million compared to 5.33 million recorded during the same period last year.
BPS Chairman Suryamin noted on Tuesday that the number of tourist arrivals in July 2015 also rose 4.76 percent to 814.2 thousand from 777.2 thousand arrivals in July 2014.
However, compared to June 2015, the number of tourist arrivals in July 2015 fell slightly by 0.11 percent.
In Bali, the country's iconic tourist resort province, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the first seven months of 2015 also rose by 10.09 percent to 2,299,995 from the same period last year.
"I believe that 95 percent of the foreign tourists, who have shown interest to visit Bali again, will help to exceed the government-set target of four million tourist arrivals in Bali for 2015," tourism observer Dewa Nyoman Putra stated on Sunday.
Despite the global economic slowdown, the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali via Ngurah Rai Airport remained stable in the January-July 2015 period, he pointed out.
This means that the number of tourist arrivals in Bali over the period reached 2.2 million, he revealed.
The international community still views Bali as a favorite tourist destination, he remarked.
However, the number of tourists arriving from the neighboring ASEAN countries has dropped. The decrease was due to the volcanic ash being spewed as a result of the recent Mount Raung eruption in East Java.
"The number of tourists coming from Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore has declined in July 2015. Probably, they were afraid of being stranded in Bali and not being able to return on time," I Dewa Nyoman Putra stated on Friday.
He noted that despite the maximum number of monthly tourist arrivals to Bali always being recorded from Australia, yet a drop was registered from 94,664 in June to 81,456 in July.
Nevertheless, the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals in Bali came from Australia compared to those from other neighboring nations.
Putra pointed out that apart from concerns over the natural disaster, the decrease in the number of Australian tourists was also probably due to the execution of Australian drug convicts in Bali some time ago.
He said that based on data released by the office of Bali's Tourism Service, 567,546 Australian tourist arrivals were recorded in the January-July 2015 period, up by 4.91 percent compared to 541,008 arrivals noted in the same period in 2014.
However, Australians still topped the list of foreign tourist arrivals in the January-July 2015 period, accounting for 24.81 percent of the total 2.2 million foreign tourist arrivals in Bali.
A drop in tourist arrivals from Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand to Bali was also observed.
The number of foreign tourist arrivals from Singapore dropped 20.41 percent from 104,921 in the January-July 2014 period, to 83,511 in the same period in 2015.
A similar trend was also observed in Malaysian tourist arrivals, which went down by 11.35 percent to 110,965 in the January-July 2015 period compared to 125,173 recorded in the same period last year.
In the meantime, the number of Thai tourists visiting Bali also reduced from 18,377 in the first seven months of 2014 to 17,585 in the corresponding period in 2015.
The tourism observer noted that the volcanic eruption has surely affected the tourism sector of Bali as it has disrupted transportation and has led to the cancellations of numerous flights to and from Bali.
"However, all this will only be temporary as the conditions are returning to normal," Putra argued.
In an effort to attract more foreign tourists, the Indonesian government has decided to provide visa-free facilities to the tourists from 45 countries and is planning to grant the facility to 47 other nations, thereby bringing the total number of visa-free facility recipients to 92 countries.
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli stated that the visitors from 47 more countries will be offered visa-free travel to Indonesia in October.
Ramli said the offer will come into effect in October to coincide with the yearend holidays.
"Originally, it was proposed to be made effective in January next year, but we do not want to wait that long. In addition, we want to capitalize on the yearend tourist season," he affirmed on Tuesday.
In April, this year, the government included 30 countries to increase the number to 45 countries from which short-term travelers do not require a visa.
In October, with the addition of 47 more countries, tourists and other travelers from 92 countries would no longer need a visa for a short-term visit to Indonesia.
Ramli has therefore called for making the required technical preparations before implementing the policy.
He said the visa-free travel facility is the most effective approach to draw more visitors to the country.
The government has set a target to attract up to 20 million foreign tourists to visit the country in 2019.
He remarked that the implementation of the earlier policy in April resulted in a 15 percent increase in the number of foreign visitors to the country as against the average increase of 4 percent.
Indonesia recorded 9 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2014, compared to 8.8 million visitors in 2013.
Indonesia recorded 9 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2014, compared to 8.8 million visitors in 2013.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya emphasized that the government expects a growth of up to 20 percent in foreign tourist arrivals during the first and second phase of the implementation of the visa-free policy.
"We expect an increase of one to two million tourists a year, which will reflect a 20 percent growth in our target," he added. ***3***(T.A014/INE)
(T.SYS/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 03-09-2015 15:01:34
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