Tourism in Indonesia: Rising Foreign Visitor Arrivals in February 2018
Foreign visitor arrivals in Indonesia showed good growth in February 2018. Based on the latest data of Statistics Indonesia (BPS), a total of 1.2 million foreigners entered Indonesia for a short visit in the second month of 2018. This constitutes a 9.1 percent increase compared to the preceding month and a 17.4 percent increase compared to February one year ago.
Suhariyanto, Head of BPS, said the flow of foreign tourists to Bali, Indonesia's most popular tourist destination, has recovered significantly from the high degree of volcanic activity of Mount Agung (including eruptions) that plagued this island between November 2017 and February 2018. In February 2018 a total of 443,805 foreign visitors were welcomed on Bali (through Ngurah Rai International Airport), up 28.6 percent from visitor arrivals in the preceding month. However, compared to the same month one year ago, foreign tourist arrivals on Bali were down slightly (by 0.97 percent) in February 2018. Besides easing activity of Mount Agung, aggressive discounts are also cited as reason for rising tourist arrivals on Bali.
Most foreign visitors in February 2018 originated from China (214,427), followed by Malaysia (205,855), and Singapore (125,153).
Asnawi Bahar, Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA), said the latest data show good growth, especially after the Mount Agung eruption. However, foreign visitor arrivals in Indonesia are still too volatile and therefore he does not expect that the government's target of welcoming 17 million tourists in full-year 2018 can be achieved. It would require monthly tourist arrivals of at least 1.5 million in the remainder of the year to achieve the target, a figure that is simply too high.
Monthly Foreign Visitor Arrivals in Indonesia:
| Month | Tourist Arrivals 2017 |
Tourist Arrivals 2018 |
| January | 1,107,968 | 1,100,677 |
| February | 1,023,388 | 1,201,059 |
| March | 1,066,588 | |
| April | 1,142,180 | |
| May | 1,150,067 | |
| June | 1,111,616 | |
| July | 1,379,961 | |
| August | 1,404,664 | |
| September | 1,213,640 | |
| October | 1,158,599 | |
| November | 1,062,030 | |
| December | 1,147,031 | |
| Total | 14,039,799 |
| Month | Tourist Arrivals 2013 |
Tourist Arrivals 2014 |
Tourist Arrivals 2015 |
Tourist Arrivals 2016 |
| January | 614,328 | 753,079 | 723,039 | 814,303 |
| February | 678,415 | 702,666 | 786,653 | 888,309 |
| March | 725,316 | 765,607 | 789,596 | 915,019 |
| April | 646,117 | 726,332 | 749,882 | 901,095 |
| May | 700,708 | 752,363 | 793,499 | 915,206 |
| June | 789,594 | 851,475 | 815,148 | 857,651 |
| July | 717,784 | 777,210 | 814,233 | 1,032,741 |
| August | 771,009 | 826,821 | 850,542 | 1,031,986 |
| September | 770,878 | 791,296 | 869,179 | 1,006,653 |
| October | 719,900 | 808,767 | 825,818 | 1,040,651 |
| November | 807,422 | 764,461 | 777,976 | 1,002,333 |
| December | 766,966 | 915,334 | 913,828 | 1,113,328 |
| Total | 8,802,129 | 9,435,411 | 9,729,350 | 11,519,275 |
Annual Foreign Visitor Arrivals in Indonesia:
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| Foreign Tourists (in millions) |
8.80 | 9.44 | 9.73 | 11.52 | 14.04 |
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| Foreign Tourists (in millions) |
5.51 | 6.23 | 6.32 | 7.00 | 7.65 | 8.04 |
Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)