Foreign Tourist Arrivals to Indonesia Jump 22.6% in January 2014
The number of foreign tourists that visited Indonesia in January 2014 surged 22.6 percent to 753,079 from the same month last year. As usual, most tourists entered Indonesia through the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, the most popular tourist destination of foreigners, followed by Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Batam. A remarkable growth was detected in foreign visitor arrivals in Lombok, growing by 374 percent (yoy). However, this development was not explained by Statistics Indonesia in its press conference.
The 22.6 percent surge was partly caused by Chinese New Year celebrations at the end of January as many visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia came to Indonesia to celebrate this event. Also improved connectivity was cited as reason for the increase of tourist arrivals. In January, two new foreign airlines opened direct flights to Indonesia (Jetstar Airways and Hainan Airlines).
Indonesia's Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu expects this trend to continue in the months ahead. The ministry targets to welcome between 9.2 and 9.5 million foreign tourists in Indonesia in 2014.
View Statistics Indonesia's January 2014 tourism data
Foreign Tourist Arrivals in 2013-2014:
| Month | Tourist Arrivals 2013 |
Tourist Arrivals 2014 |
| January | 614,328 | 753,079 |
| February | 678,415 | |
| March | 725,316 | |
| April | 646,117 | |
| May | 700,708 | |
| June | 789,594 | |
| July | 717,784 | |
| August | 771,009 | |
| September | 770,878 | |
| October | 719,900 | |
| November | 807,422 | |
| December | 766,966 | |
| Total | 8,802,129 | 753,079 |
Foreign Tourists Arrivals 2007-2014:
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014¹ | |
| Foreign Tourists (in millions) |
5.51 | 6.23 | 6.32 | 7.00 | 7.65 | 8.04 | 8.80 | 9.3 |
¹ indicates government target
Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)