Pagebluk COVID-19 Makes Foreign Tourist Visits In April Decrease 66.02 Percent

Capture the screen of the Head of BPS Suhariyanto. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released data on tourism development during the COVID-19 period. As of April, the number of foreign tourists visiting or foreign tourists to Indonesia is only 160,000 people. This decrease was due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Head of BPS Suhariyanto said, compared to the number of foreign tourists in March, the number of foreign tourists in April decreased by 66.02 percent month to month (mtm). When compared to the current position with the same period in 2019, this figure has decreased very sharply to 87.44 percent year on year (yoy).

"Cumulatively from January to April, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia reached 2.77 million visits or decreased by 45.01 percent. Compared to the number of foreign tourists visiting in the same period in 2019, which amounted to 5.03 million visits," he said, in a video conference. with reporters, Tuesday, June 2.

Suhariyanto said, this condition certainly raises concerns in the tourism sector, which of course is a contributor to the Indonesian economy. This is because a decrease in the number of foreign tourist visits in the tourism sector can have a negative impact on supporting sectors such as room occupancy, transportation sector, the creative economy and so on due to COVID-19.

The Room Occupancy Rate (TPK) of star-classified hotels in Indonesia in April reached an average of 12.67 percent or decreased by 41.23 points compared to the ROR for April 2019 which was recorded at 53.90 percent.

In addition, he continued, when compared to the ROR for March 2020, the ROR for star-classified hotels in April 2020 also decreased by 19.57 points.

"The average length of stay of foreign and Indonesian guests at star-classified hotels during April 2020 was recorded at 1.93 days, an increase of 0.10 points compared to April 2019," he explained.

Development of National Transportation

Suhariyanto explained that the number of domestic air transport passengers departing in April was 838.1 thousand people, down 81.70 percent compared to March. The number of passengers traveling abroad (international) fell 95.35 percent to 26,000 thousand people.

"During January to April, the number of domestic passengers was 17.5 million people, down 27.67 percent and the number of international passengers by 3.4 million people, down 42.78 percent over the same period in 2019," he said.

Meanwhile, said Suhariyanto, the number of domestic sea transport passengers departing in April was recorded at 559.6 thousand people, down 70.82 percent compared to March. The amount of goods transported decreased 2.31 percent to 24.9 million tons.

"During January to April 2020 the number of passengers was 6.7 million people, down 3.24 percent compared to the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, the number of goods transported increased by 3.23 percent or reached 99.5 million tons," he said.

According to Suhariyanto, the number of train passengers departing in April was 5.9 million people, down 74.86 percent compared to March. Similar to the number of passengers, the amount of goods carried by train decreased by 7.10 percent to 4.2 million tons.

During January to April, the number of passengers reached 95.7 million people or decreased by 30.92 percent compared to the same period in 2019. "This is different for the amount of goods transported by trains, up 6.69 percent to 17.2 million tons," he said .