It has happened because the handling of COVID-19 is getting better, thus the international community’s trust in Indonesia has (also) increased.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The number of international tourist arrivals reached 477 thousand in July 2022, the highest on record since the start of the pandemic, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) head Margo Yuwono informed at a press conference on Thursday.

“It is encouraging news since the tourists have a large multiplier effect on the economy. Thus, the improving tourism sector can contribute to economic recovery in Indonesia," he said.

Most of the international tourists entered Indonesia from Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali province, with their number reaching 246,442, followed by Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Banten province, which welcomed 119,179 tourists, and Batam city in Riau Islands province (56,610 tourists), he reported.

"Looking at the graph presented, we can see how the number of foreign tourists has increased from month-to-month (mtm), which shows that that the trend of (the number of) visits in 2022 is rising and is better than before," he remarked.

The number of international tourist visits in July increased by 38.08 percent compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, compared to July 2021, the figure rose by 6,396.46 percent -- in line with the community’s mobility, which has begun to recover.

"It has happened because the handling of COVID-19 is getting better, thus the international community’s trust in Indonesia has (also) increased. It has encouraged the number of foreign tourist visits to improve," the BPS head said.

Cumulatively, from January to July 2022, the number of international tourist arrivals in Indonesia reached 1,220,170, an increase of 1,434.39 percent year-on-year (yoy).

However, compared to the number of visits in 2020, the figure was far lower.

"It means that it (the tourism sector) has not fully recovered compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic," Yuwono noted.

The highest number of international tourists in July 2022 came from Australia, namely 84,600 tourists, an increase of 31.06 percent mtm.

Meanwhile, the second-highest tourist arrivals were from Singapore, reaching 59,800, an increase of 12.79 percent compared to June 2022.

In addition, the number of tourists from Malaysia was the third-largest, reaching 43,600, or up 37.36 percent mtm.

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Translator: Sella Gareta, Uyu Liman
Editor: Suharto
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