Really Quiet! Only 260 Tourists Visited The Riau Islands In January 2021

Lower Island, Anambas Regency Islands, Riau Islands. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - BPS (Central Bureau of Statistics) noted that the number of foreign tourist visits to the Riau Islands Province (Kepri) during January 2021 was 260 visits, or decreased by 52.03 percent compared to foreign tourists visiting during December 2020 which reached 542 visits.

Even when compared to January 2020, the number of foreign tourist visits to the Riau Islands area fell by 99.88 percent as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 so that the impact was certainly very large on the local tourism industry.

Head of BPS Kepri Agus Sudibyo said the decrease in the number of foreign tourist visits during January 2021 was a decrease in the number of foreign tourists visiting from the two main entrances in the Riau Islands, namely Bintan Regency down 100 percent and Batam City down by 44.80 percent.

"Meanwhile, the entrance to Karimun Regency and Tanjungpinang City does not have foreign tourists visiting at all", said Head of BPS Kepri Agus Sudibyo, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, March 2.

Agus said that in January 2021, only Filipino tourists visited the Riau Islands. When compared to December 2020, visits by foreign tourists from the Philippines did not experience a change in the number of visits.

"This Filipino foreign tourist has a role of 0.38 percent of the total foreign tourists visiting the Riau Islands", he added.

Separately, the Head of the Riau Islands Tourism Office, Buralimar, expressed his optimism that the tourism industry in 2021 will begin to recover, this is in line with the vaccination program to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

He said the local government was aggressively pushing the central government through the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to immediately open access to foreign tourists visiting the Riau Islands, especially Bintan Regency and Batam City.

The two regions, he continued, are ready to receive foreign tourists visiting because they have been equipped with strict health protocol facilities.

"The Minister has also visited Bintan and Batam. He welcomes Kepri's wish to open access to foreign tourists, hopefully, it will be realized soon so that the economy will slowly recover", he added.