JAKARTA – Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Wednesday (1/11) revealed that Indonesia welcomed more than one million foreign tourists in September 2023.
The number was dominated by tourists from Malaysia, contributing to up to 14.22 percent or more than 152 thousand visits.
Tourists from Australia came in second place, with a contribution of 13.09 percent or more than 140 thousand visits throughout the 30 days of the month.
And then, tourists from Singapore were in third place, contributing to up to 10.72 percent or more than 114 thousand visits.
Deputy for Distribution Statistics and Services at BPS Pudji Ismartini said that the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in September 2023 decreased by 5.51 percent compared to August 2023, but increased by 52.76 percent compared to September 2022.
“The trend of the increasing number of foreign tourists visiting annually has been visible since March 2022 and will continue until September 2023,” stated BPS in its news release.
“This shows that the recovery of the tourism sector in Indonesia is still continuing. However, the number of foreign tourist visits is currently still below the conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred,” they continued.
Furthermore, Pudji explained that, based on the type of entrance, the number of foreign tourist visits in September 2023 through the main entrance reached 934.82 thousand, while the border entrance was 135.43 thousand visits.
The number of visits through the main entrance was dominated by foreign tourists using air transportation (83.17 percent), with Ngurah Rai and Soekarno Hatta airports recorded as the main entry points.
On the other hand, the number of visits through the border entrance was dominated by foreign tourists entering through the maritime border entrance (57.46 percent) or reached 77.81 thousand visits.