... hope there will be a significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals at the end of this year... "Jakarta (ANTARA News) - More than 4,872,260 foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the first seven months of this year, up 6.4 percent from the same period last year, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said.
"In the previous years the number of tourist arrivals fell during the fasting month but this is not the case with this year. We hope there will be a significant increase in the number of tourist arrivals at the end of this year," she said here on Monday.
In July 2013 alone, Indonesia received 717,784 tourist arrivals, a 2.4 percent increase compared to 701,200 in the same month last year, she said.
She said the number of tourist arrivals rose slightly in July which coincided with the holy month of Ramadhan.
"That is one of the factors encouraging tourists from predominantly Muslim countries such as Malaysia, several Middle Eastern countries and Singapore to reduce their overseas trips," she said.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show that compared to July 2012, the number of tourist arrivals from United Arab Emirates dropped 86.2 percent, Bahrain 65.7 percent and Saudi Arabia 59.3 percent in July 2013.
Meanwhile, the number of tourists from Singapore and Malaysia fell 2.9 percent and 13 percent respectively.
However, the number of tourist arrivals from China increased 29.9 percent, Japan 0.1 percent, South Korea 4 percent, Taiwan 38.7 percent, the Netherlands 5.8 percent, France 3.7 percent, Britain 13.1 percent, India 18.7 percent, Germany 4 percent, and the Philippines 12.6 percent.
Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
