Indonesia Still Lack Of Foreign Tourists: Number Of Visits Drops 88.95 Percent

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that the number of foreign tourist visits (tourists) to Indonesia in September 2020 reached 153,500 visits. This figure has decreased significantly by 88.95 percent when compared to the number of foreign tourists visiting in September 2019, which amounted to 1.39 million visits.

"Likewise, when compared to August 2020, the number of foreign tourist visits in September 2020 also decreased by 5.94 percent," said Head of BPS Suhariyanto during a virtual press conference quoted from Antara, Monday, November 2.

This number consisted of 9,970 foreign tourists visiting through air entrances, 48,460 sea entrances, and 95,070 land entrances.

Judging by the air entrances, Suharyanto explained the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia in September 2020 had decreased by 98.89 percent compared to the number of foreign tourists visiting in the same month the previous year.

The decline in foreign tourist visits occurred at all air entrances, where the lowest percentage decline was recorded at Sam Ratulangi Airport (North Sulawesi) of 81.69 percent.

Then followed by Soekarno-Hatta Airport (Banten) and Ahmad Yani Airport (Central Java) amounting to 96.47 percent and 99.49 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile Adi Sucipto Airport (Yogyakarta Special Region), Lombok International Airport (West Nusa Tenggara), Supadio Airport (West Kalimantan), Hasanuddin Airport (South Sulawesi), and Sultan Badarudin II Airport (South Sumatra) experienced a decrease of 100.00 percent. .

Thus, cumulatively during January-September 2020, the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia reached 3.56 million visits or decreased by 70.57 percent when compared to the number of foreign tourist visits in the same period in 2019 which totaled 12.10 million visits.

Suhariyanto added that seeing the data listed in the tourism sector it is suspected that it will still take time to recover from the impact of COVID-19.