Visitor Arrivals up 12% in First Half of 2007

Aug 11th 2007

The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia rose 12% to 2.14 million in the first half of 2007 from a year ago, Head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Rusman Heriawan said on Wednesday (1/8/07), led by higher arrivals at Bali, reported Indonesia’s Trade and Investment News.

The government expects foreign tourist arrivals to increase by 25% to 6 million this year, bringing in around $5.5 billion in foreign exchange earnings, up 22% from a year ago, Reuters reported.

Tourist arrivals in Bali rose 34% to 781,059 in the first half from the same period last year due to an improving security situation and political stability.

The bureau also said that a series of cultural events, including the annual Bali Arts Festival featuring traditional dance and music in June and July, also boosted tourist arrivals.
"Singapore is the biggest contributor to tourism in terms of numbers. The total figure almost reached half a million people over the course of the semester," Rusman added. He said the reason for this was because Singapore was close to Batam and Bintan islands, which they usually visit during weekends or just to shop” Rusman said. 
The second biggest contributor was Malaysia, with a total of 283,000 people. "Malaysian tourist spend more time here due to cultural ties and their long relationship with Indonesia," he said.
Japanese tourists were also quality tourists, he said, with the total number of Japanese visiting Indonesia numbering around 215,000 during the first semester.