Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Ministry of Tourism welcomed 254 foreign tourists from Poland, who arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar, Bali, on a LOT Polish Airline charter plane on Monday (June 25).
Assistant Deputy for Marketing Development II Regional IV (Europe) of the Ministry of Tourism, Agustini Rahayu, said that the total number of foreign tourists from Poland reached 2,540 people.
"The group that arrived today is the first group of the total 10 groups to come to Indonesia for vacation. The total number of Polish tourists who landed in Bali on a LOT Polish Airline until October 2018 is predicted to reach 2,540 tourists," Rahayu noted in a statement here on Wednesday.
The welcoming ceremony was also attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, A.M Fachir; Indonesian Ambassador to Poland, H.E. Peter F Gontha; as well as the Polish Ambassador to Indonesia, H. E. Beata Stoczy?ska.
The arrival of the foreign tourists from Poland is a form of cooperation of the direct charter flight program connecting Warsaw and Denpasar, which had been established since 2016.
Each group of Polish tourists will be on vacation in Indonesia for 14 days. It will certainly have a positive impact towards the effort to achieve the target of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia, and the Ministry of Tourism truly appreciates this form of cooperation, Agustini remarked.
According to the Minister of Tourism, Arief Yahya, a plus point of European tourists is their spending. A tourist spends an average of US$1,538 per visit.
Although the number of Chinese tourists is greater, foreign exchange income or tourist spending from European tourists is much higher, with more than $2.6 billion, whereas foreign exchange income from Chinese tourists is only $1.9 billion, the minister remarked.
For the record, statistics from the Ministry of Tourism has recorded approximately 1,862,231 European tourists visiting Indonesia during 2017.
The Ministry of Tourism earlier targeted the arrival of 17 million foreign tourists and 270 million domestic visitors in 2018.
In the meantime, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) noted that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia in 2017 had reached 14.04 million, up 21.88 percent compared to 11.52 million in 2016.
Head of BPS Suhariyanto noted at a press conference in Jakarta recently that of the 14.04 million foreign tourists, 11.79 million had entered through 19 main entry gates, and 2.25 million visited the country through the entry gates other than the 19 main entrances.
Based on BPS` records, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2014 had reached 9.43 million and rose to 10.23 million visits in 2015, while in 2016, the country had received 14.04 million visitors.
Meanwhile, the room occupancy rate of star-rated hotels in Indonesia in December 2017 had reached an average of 59.53 points, or an increase of 3.03 percent compared to 56.50 percent in December 2016.
Similarly, as compared to the occupancy rate of star-rated hotels in December 2017, the figure increased by 1.65 points compared to November 2017.
The average length of stay of foreign and Indonesian guests in star-rated hotels in December 2017 was recorded to be 1.72 days, an increase of 0.02 points compared to December 2016.
Reporter: Azis Kurmala
Editor: Andi Abdussalam
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