Indonesia welcomed more than 1.06 million foreign tourists in the January-August 2021 period, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS).

“The number of tourist arrivals is still low. Tourist arrivals have a significant impact on the economy, particularly regions relying on tourism as the engine (of their economy),” BPS chief Margo Yuwono said in an online press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

Of the total tourists, 79.08 thousand travelled to Indonesia by air, 301.34 thousand by sea, and 681.11 thousand by land, he informed.

In August alone, the number of tourists visiting Indonesia fell 21.19 percent to 127,310 compared to 161,550 in the same month last year, he said.

Compared to July 2021, the number of tourist arrivals in August 2021 dropped 6 percent, he added.

Of the tourists who arrived in August 2021, 1,610 came to Indonesia by air, 35,900 by sea, and 89,900 by land, Yuwono said.

BPS recorded a 71.9-percent decline in the number of tourists coming to Indonesia by air in August 2021 compared to the same month last year, he added.

Several airports including Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Riau, and Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Aceh witnessed a decline in the number of passengers by up to 100 percent, he said.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers at Sultan Badaruddin II Airport in South Sumatra rose 3,080 percent from 15 to 477, and at Lombok International Airport l Lombok, they jumped 1,200 percent from two to 26, he added.

Source: Antara News