TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) chairman Suhariyanto said that foreign tourist arrivals from January to August was recorded at 9.25 million or soared by 25.68 percent compared to the same period last year of 7.36 million.
August 2017 saw 1.40 million foreign tourist arrivals, representing a 36.11 percent increase on a year on year basis.
Some 7.98 million foreign tourists arrived through 19 major entries and 1.27 million visited the country through other entries.
Compared to July, August foreign tourist arrivals jumped by 1.79 percent. “We observe that most of them were regular tourists. Special tourists are, for example, elderly tourists, preachers, those who join training, research, etc.,” he said.
An increase of regular tourist arrivals in August took place in most of the major entries with the highest percentage seen at Solo’s Adi Sumarmo Airport at 193.23 percent, followed by Tanjung Pinang Port in the Riau Islands at 87.56 percent and Kualanamu Airport in North Sumatra at 57.89 percent.
The lowest increase was recorded by Soekarno-Hatta at only 3.79 percent. The lowest number of regular foreign tourist arrivals in August was seen at Sepinggan Airport in East Kalimantan at 83.25 percent and Tanjung Balai Karimun Port in the Riau Islands at 1.99 percent.
HENDARTYO HANGGI
