Tourism in Indonesia: Foreign Visitor Number Rises 8.7% in Jan-Oct


Cumulatively, foreign tourist arrivals reached 7.6 million in the January-October 2014 period, up 8.7 percent from the number of foreign visitors in the same period last year. As usual, most visitors entered Indonesia through the airport on the island of Bali, Indonesia’s foremost tourist destination. During the first ten months of 2014 a total of 3.1 million foreigners entered Indonesia in Bali (up 16.8 percent from the same period in 2013).

In terms of nationality, most foreign tourists that visited Indonesia in the January-October 2014 period originated from Singapore (15.3 percent of total number of visitors in the indicated period), followed by Malaysia (13.8 percent), Australia (12.4 percent), and China (11.8 percent).


Main Points of Entry Foreign Tourists:

Location  October 2013  October 2014  Jan - Oct 2013  Jan - Oct 2014
Ngurah Rai Airport (Bali)       266,453       339,200      2,651,938      3,096,766
Soekarno-Hatta Airport (Jakarta)       191,460       177,274      1,851,986      1,875,631
Batam       103,511       126,169      1,058,798      1,158,698

Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)

The Indonesian government targets to welcome a total of 9.5 million foreign tourists in 2014. In the long term, this figure should more than double in the next decade as Indonesia targets to attract a similar number of foreign tourists as neighbouring countries Singapore and Malaysia. Recently, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced that visa requirements for foreign visitors from Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia are to be scrapped from January 2015 in an effort to boost foreign tourist numbers. Although this move would imply that Indonesia misses out on roughly USD $11.3 million per year (as currently USD $35 is charged for a ‘visa on arrival’), it is expected to result in an additional 450,000 foreign tourists per year and considering that each tourist spends an average USD $1,200 during his/her holiday in Indonesia, the country will thus gain around USD $540 million in additional foreign exchange per year.


Foreign Tourist Arrivals in Indonesia - 2013-2014:

Month  Tourist Arrivals
         2013
 Tourist Arrivals
         2014
January        614,328        753,079
February        678,415        702,666
March        725,316        765,607
April        646,117        726,332
May        700,708        752,363
June        789,594        851,475
July        717,784        777,210
August        771,009        826,821
September        770,878        791,296
October        719,900        808,767
November        807,422  
December        766,966  
Total       8,802,129       7,755,616

Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)


Foreign Tourist Arrivals in Indonesia - 2007-2014:

    2007   2008   2009   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014¹
Foreign Tourists
(in millions)
  5.51   6.23   6.32   7.00   7.65   8.04    8.80    9.50

¹ indicates government target
Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)

Tourism in Indonesia: Foreign Visitor Number Rises 8.7% in Jan-Oct

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