THERE were 745,451 overseas arrivals to Indonesia in July, a 13.2 per cent increase over last July’s 658,476 visitors.
Indonesia Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, said: “This is the best July performance ever, and with performance in the second half of the year usually better than the first half, I’m optimistic that our target of 7.7 million arrivals is achievable.
For the period January-July 2011, Indonesia welcomed 4,343,083 overseas visitors, a 7.53 per cent increase over 2010’s 4,039,020 arrivals.
The Australia market led the way in terms of rate of growth, contributing 490,977 arrivals, up 24.9 per cent over the same period last year. However, the largest number of visitors (717,155) were from Singapore.
Speaking during the ministry’s marketing workshop in Jakarta yesterday, Wacik said: “Looking at the trend, we are optimistic that Singapore and Australia will continue to grow significantly.”
“China is also on the rise, while the Middle East is a bulky market to grab,” he added.
Sapta Nirwandar, director general of marketing Indonesia Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said: “We need all stakeholders to synergise and promote tourism in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Russia, as there is huge potential to tap from these market still.”
Nirwandar also expects more air capacity to be injected, in view of the scheduled opening of Lombok International Airport next month (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 13).
