Cumulatively from January to August this year the country welcomed 7,356,310 visitors, being a rise of 8.39% compared to the same period year on year when 6,786,906 came to visit Indonesia, revealed the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).
The highest increases in August in arrivals by nationality compared to the same month in 2015, as recorded at Indonesia’s 19 main immigration points, are : Saudi Arabia (55.3%), Australia (47.5%), France (35.9%), England (30.9%), and Germany (27.6%). While, cumulatively from January to August 2016 when compared year on year, most impressive growth was made in arrivals from Egypt (49.93%), Bahrain (46.26%), India (29.19%), France (23.78%), and China (23.67%).
Indonesia’s Tourism Minister, Arief Yahya, greeted positively the 7.4 million international tourists arrivals to the country for the first 8 months of 2016 , stating : “We are right on track”. Since tourist arrivals in July and August have exceeded the 1 million mark, and expecting this trend to continue in the coming 4 months to the end of the year, this means that Indonesia is right on track to achieve our goal to welcome 12 million tourists in 2016, said Minister Arief Yahya.
China Arrivals Soar to the Top
The number of visitors from China to Indonesia during the first 8 months this year has soared, reaching a cumulative total of 980,184 tourists, thus becoming the number one largest market to Indonesia, followed by Singapore (939,231), - for years the top market to Indonesia - in second place, Australia (793,235) coming in third, Malaysia (777,951) fourth, and Japan (340,991) in fifth place.
Whereas, when looking at the month of August 2016 specifically, then the Australians outpaced Singaporeans as the second largest market to Indonesia. The most number of arrivals were still tourists from China (148,616), followed by Australia (100,484) in second place , in third place came Singapore (99,744), Malaysia (91,078) in fourth, and Japan (45,725) in fifth place.
