TOURIST arrivals to Indonesia jumped 14.5 per cent year-on-year to 678,415 in February on the back of the Lunar New Year holidays. However, this works out to be a less-than-desirable 3.8 per cent growth in year-to-date arrivals.
“The significant growth in arrivals from Singapore (25.5 per cent), Malaysia (15.6 per cent), Taiwan (32.8 per cent), China (73.1 per cent) and Hong Kong (84.3 per cent) in February has shown this,” said Indonesia’s minister of tourism and creative economy, Mari Elka Pangestu.
She noted that a number of airlines, such as Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air, had created special promotions to boost arrivals over the festive period.
“The West Kalimantan tourist office and local tour operators also organised the Chap Go Meh (the 15th day of the Lunar New Year) Festival in Pontianak last February,” Pangestu added.
In comparison, arrivals for January 2013 – the Lunar New Year fell in January in 2012 – were down by 5.8 per cent. Total arrivals to Indonesia for January-February were 1.3 million, a 3.8 per cent increase over last year’s 1.2 million.
Nevertheless, Mari said: “This is below the average growth rate we are expecting, which is five to six per cent, if we are to achieve the moderate target of 8.6 million arrivals or 10 per cent to reach nine million arrivals.
“However, it is still early in the year and we need to look at the growth of traffic in February as momentum to continue growing arrival numbers and quality to hit the nine million arrivals mark this year.
“We will continue to make various promotional efforts, organise events and foster the creative industries in tourist destinations to boost arrivals. ”
Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association chairman Yanti Sukamdani said Indonesia’s hotel industry was experiencing a slow start to the year with occupancy in the low 40s, but March occupancy was growing to between 45 per cent and 50 per cent, depending on the destination.
“January and February fall in the low season and the extreme weather (in Indonesia in mid-January and February) had affected travel, which in turn lowered hotel occupancies,” she said.
