Indonesia sees rise in arrivals

• Feb 22, 2017

JAKARTA: Foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia rose 10.7% to 11.52 million people last year but those from some countries, including Japan, decreased due to concerns over terrorism as well as prevailing economic conditions, according to official data.
China topped the list of foreign tourists by nationality, accounting for 1.43 million of the 2016 total, up 25%.
“The opening of six direct flight routes from China to North Sulawesi every day, which started in 2016, obviously had a really good impact on our tourism,” I Gde Pitana, deputy head of the Overseas Tourism Marketing Development at the Ministry of Tourism, said.
But the number of tourists from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, ranked second, fourth and fifth on the list respectively, decreased although those from third-ranked Australia increased.
Singapore tourists declined 8.5% to 1.42 million last year, largely due to a bomb scare in August 2016 on Batam island, a popular destination for Singaporeans due to its proximity.
Japanese tourists decreased 8.1% to 468,107 in 2016.
“External factors such as security concerns and global economic conditions were behind the reduced number of some foreign tourists, such as those from Japan affected by unstable economic conditions,” Gde said at a press conference, citing data from Statistics Indonesia and the Ministry of Tourism.
But the ministry is quite optimistic about prospects this year, expecting an increase of at least 10% in foreign tourist arrivals.
“We will optimize our digital approach to attract more tourists. According to some studies, over 70% of prospective foreign tourists research through digital means first before they visit their tourism destinations,” Gde said.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/world/1202585/indonesia-sees-rise-in-arrivals