Record August arrivals surge 21.5%: Indonesia optimistic about attaining 8.6 million tourist target
Almasalla Travel News – Ashraf El gedawy – The month of August 2013 proved a record month for tourist arrivals to Indonesia up 21.57% compared to the same month last year. This comes at the heels of a lackluster July which this year coincided with the month of Ramadhan fasting month. Indeed, visitors from the Middle East surged three fold increasing 235.7%, and the number of tourists from Malaysia and Singapore also rose significantly during August.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, cumulatively from January through August 2013, Indonesia received 5,643,271 foreign visitors, an increase of 8.28% over the same period of 2012. This positive development bodes well for this year’s target of 8.6 million international visitors to be reached, considering the many international events that are held here from September to the end of the year, that include the Miss World Pageant and the APEC Summit both rolled out in Bali. Other events that attract many visitors are the Sail Indonesia yacht rally, TIME, Indonesia’s Travel and Tourism Mart, the Jakarta Marathon, and a gamut of festivals across the archipelago.
Indonesia’s many airlines have also opened international routes and increased capacity, besides greatly adding to the domestic connectivity network among cities and tourist destinations in Indonesia, said Tourism and Creative Economy Minister, Mari Elka Pangestu.
Destination-wise, among top arrivals are to Bali with 2.08 million arrivals, up 9.9% year on year, Jakarta received 1.46 million, up 10.19%, Batam saw 847,072 tourists, up 8.23%, Surabaya received 144,271 international tourists, up 13.27%, while Bandung welcomed 107,267 tourists, up 15.66% y-on-y.
According to residence, top increases were from the Middle East, up a hefty 39.57%, and China, increasing 22.56%. While top markets for Indonesia are visitors from Singapore (842,230), increasing 6.85%, followed by Malaysia (754,385 tourists) up 7.04%, Australia (601,814) increasing 3.65%, China (505.812) surging 22.56%, Japan (314,265) climbing 10.72% and South Korea (212,634) up 2.64%.
