"It increased slightly from that in the previous month. The foreign tourists arrived for business- and work-related matters and not for leisure," Head of BPS Suhariyanto stated during a virtual press conference here on Thursday.
However, the number of foreign tourist visits in Aug 2020 dropped drastically, or by 89.22 percent.
The total number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia during the January-August 2020 period, reached 3.4 million, a 68.17-percent decrease, from 10.71 million visits during the corresponding period last year.
Based on the data, Suhariyanto concluded that the tourism sector would take a long time to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the recovery would depend on the handling of COVID-19 in Indonesia and other countries, he stated.
In August 2020, the visits of foreign tourists from the Middle East region decreased by 99.30 percent, from that in August 2019.
On the other hand, the smallest percentage of decline was recorded for foreign tourists coming from Asian regions other than the ASEAN, reaching 80.60 percent.
Based on their nationalities, most foreign tourists coming to Indonesia were from Timor Leste, with 89.41 thousand visits, or 54.20 percent; followed by visitors from Malaysia, at 58.29 thousand, or 35.33 percent; China, 3.66 thousand visits, or 2.22 percent; the United States, 1.77 thousand visits, or 1.07 percent; and the Netherlands, 1.37 thousand visits, or 0.83 percent. Related news: Belitung Island ready to welcome tourists: governor
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Translator: Fardah Assegaf
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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