As of July 2017, Indonesia has recorded over 20 percent more foreign tourists than it did in the same period last year, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), as the country looks to reach the targeted 15 million foreign tourists in 2017.
BPS head Suhariyanto said that in the January-July period this year, the number of foreign tourists coming to Indonesia reached 7.81 million people, which is a 23.53 percent increase from the figure of 6.32 million recorded in the same period last year.
The month of July 2017, in particular, saw a significant rise in the number of foreign tourists into Indonesia, recording 1.35 million tourists throughout the month, which is 21.57 percent more than the number recorded in the previous month and as much as 30.85 percent higher compared to that recorded in July 2016.
According to Suhariyanto, among the airports that witnessed a sharp increase in the number of foreign visitors were Adi Sucipto Airport, Yogyakarta, and Adi Sumarno Airport, Surakarta.
“There are a number of events in Yogyakarta and Surakarta which most likely had affected the increase in the number of visits in the two airports,” he said earlier this month, as quoted by Tempo.co.
He added that most of Indonesia’s foreign visits from China with 214,500 visits to Indonesia coming from the country, followed by Australia with 117,600 visits, Singapore with 109,200 visits, Malaysia with 94,400 visits and Japan with 48,700 visits.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has said the government has set a target of 15 million international arrivals for 2017, which is a 25 percent growth rate from the previous year.