BPS Notes Indonesian Citizen Healing To Singapore Increases Due To Music Concerts

Airport (photo: dock. intermediate)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said there was an increase in the percentage of national tourist travel or national tourists to Singapore. This is due to the holding of international music concerts.

"The proportion of foreign tourists visiting Singapore and Saudi Arabia has increased. Each of them was encouraged, among others, by the holding of international music concerts in Singapore and also Umrah for those to Saudi Arabia," said Acting Head of BPS Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti in Jakarta, Thursday.

This increase can be seen from the proportion of national tourist visits to destination countries. In February 2024, the proportion of national tourists visiting Singapore was 16.65 percent. This proportion increased to 17.26 percent.

Despite an increase in proportions to national travel to Singapore, Malaysia is still ranked at the top as the country most visited by the national sector. Malaysia's proportion has decreased, from the previous 31.63 percent of the total national tourists' journey to 29.95 percent.

Overall, the number of national tourist trips in March 2024 reached 691.55 thousand trips. This number, said Amalia, increased by 4.85 percent when compared to the previous month, which was from 659,564 in February 2024.

Previously, in March 2024, singer from the United States Taylor Swift held a world music tour titled Eras Tour and in Southeast Asia. Singapore is the only Taylor Swift destination in Southeast Asia.

The agreement for the implementation of the world tour in neighboring countries is not in a day, but in six days, namely on March 4, 2024 and continued on March 7, 2024, which attracted foreign tourists to watch the music concert live in Singapore.

In response to this, the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan initiated the holding of an exclusive music concert to compete with Singapore which held a similar activity, namely signing a world singer, Taylor Swift.

"What Singapore has given, we give it to him (the artist). We must dare to compete, if Singapore can make a profit, can't we?," said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at the close of Business Matching 2024 at Sanur, Denpasar, Thursday (7/3).

Luhut admitted that he had held a meeting related to the plan and decided that in six months, one of the entertainment business actors who brought in foreign artists had obtained an activity permit.

He also asked the business actor to contract with other artists and hold a rival concert.