The increase in the number of tourist arrivals was fueled by the government`s policy to grant visas on arrival to tourists from 45 countries since the end of last year.Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - A total of 1,009,915 foreign tourists visited Batam city in Riau Islands province in the first eight months of 2015, up 9.84 percent from 919,439 in the same period last year.
Despite the increase, the number of tourist arrivals in the January-August 2015 period fell short of the target of 1.7 million set by the Tourism Ministry and the target of 1.5 million set by the Batam city government.
"We remain optimistic about achieving the target of 1,512 tourist arrivals set by the Batam city government for 2015," Yusfa said here on Tuesday.
The increase in the number of tourist arrivals was fueled by the governments policy to grant visas on arrival to tourists from 45 countries since the end of last year.
Just in August 2015, 134,540 foreign tourists visited Batam, up by 22.39 percent compared with 109,931 in the previous month and 20.71 percent compared with the same month last year.
"The tourist arrivals were still dominated by tourists from Singapore which reached 79,459, accounting for 59.06 percent of the overall tourist arrivals," he said.
Most of the tourists visiting Batam in August stayed an average of 1.82 days at star hotels compared wuth 1.73 days in July.
"The room occupancy rates of star hotels reached an average of 54.66 percent, compared with 43.92 percent in the previous month," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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