BPS Worries That Corona Virus Will Affect The Number Of Foreign Tourists In Indonesia

Passengers from China at Soekarno Hatta Airport. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Suhariyanto predicts that the corona virus that is endemic in China will affect the number of visits by foreign tourists (tourists) to Indonesia. This is because the contribution of tourists from Panda Country to Indonesia reached around 12.86 percent in 2019.

"If we see there is a visit ban from the Chinese government to travel to other countries and there is also a ban from Indonesia, it will definitely have an impact. If there is a ban, it will affect," said Head of BPS Suhariyanto in Jakarta, Monday 3 February.

Suhariyanto conveyed that during January-December 2019, tourist arrivals from China reached 2.07 million visits from the total foreign tourist visits to Indonesia which reached 16.11 million visits.

This figure is down slightly from 2.1 million visits in 2018. "So 12 percent is one-eighth of 16.11 million. It will definitely affect," Suhariyanto explained.

The Indonesian government prohibits all immigrants from mainland China from entering Indonesia. The ban was imposed in line with the outbreak of the corona virus which originated from the city of Wuhan in the Bamboo Curtain country.

The prohibition is temporary. Thus, all migrants arriving from mainland China who have been there for 14 days are temporarily not allowed to enter and transit in Indonesia.

Chinese authorities announced the number of deaths from the corona virus (2019-nCoV / Wuhan Flu) had increased to 362 deaths and 17,373 cases. Of the newly reported deaths, 56 of them are in Hubei Province, which is the epicenter of the coronavirus spread. One other victim was in Chongqing.

However, this number is still below the number of patients who have successfully recovered from the corona virus. China's National Health Commission reported that 486 patients infected with the coronavirus had been discharged from hospital after recovery on Sunday 2 February.

In addition, according to a review from the gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com site, it shows that some corona virus sufferers who are outside China such as Vietnam, Japan and Australia have also been declared cured.