Tourism continues to pick up despite travel warnings

Indonesia’s tourism continued to pick up this year despite a travel warning issued by the United States on April 17, which it was feared would have a significant effect on foreign tourist travelling.

Overseas tourists coming to Indonesia amounted to 2.14 million people in the first semester of this year, which was 12.22 percent higher compared to the same period last year of 1.91 million people.

The peak season is June for foreign tourist going to Indonesia as the northern hemisphere has its summer. The number of foreign tourists arriving in Bali amounted to about 151,000 in June, an increase of 30.8 percent compared to June last year, and an increase of 11.7 percent over the 135,000 recorded in May. This shows that the warning has not had a significant effect on the growth of tourists arriving. American tourists only accounted for about 59,000 out of the total 2.14 million foreign tourists in the first semester.

In general Indonesian tourism would not be badly affected by the recent travel warnings from the U.S. and Australia because the number of tourists from these countries was far lower than the numbers coming from neighbouring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia. There were nearly half a million people who visited from Singapore last year. The second biggest contributor was Malaysia, with a total of 283,000 people in the first semester.

There were also a large number of Japanese tourists, with the total number of Japanese visiting Indonesia amounting to about 215,000 in the first semester.

All in all it is tourism is still booming.