JAKARTA (ANTARA) – Foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia reached 11.68 million in the period from January to December 2023, an increase of 98.30 percent from 2022, as recorded by Statistics Indonesia (PBS).
„This is an increase of 98.30 percent compared to the same period in 2022,” said Amalia A. Vidyasanti, acting president of the BPS, in an official press release in Jakarta on Thursday.
According to Vidyashanthi, this number surpasses the total number of foreign tourists who reached 5.89 million in 2022.
In December 2023, the number of foreign tourists reached 1.14 million, an increase of 22.91 percent compared to November 2023. An increase was recorded in December from the previous record number of foreign tourist arrivals which has been declining since September 2023.
However, with 1.38 million foreign tourists arriving in December 2019, this number is still lower than the number recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In December 2023, tourists from Malaysia accounted for 18.45 percent of foreign tourist arrivals; Singapore, 16.41 percent; and Australia, 11.87 percent.
Meanwhile, Indonesian tourism arrivals are expected to reach 7.52 million throughout 2023. This figure shows a sharp increase of 112.26 percent compared to the previous year's figure of 3.54 million trips.
„By 2023, the number of national tourism trips will exceed 500 thousand every month,” said Vidyasanthi.
The highest number of Indonesian tourism trips was recorded at 816.03 thousand in July 2023 and the lowest at 508.25 thousand in June 2023.
Southeast Asian countries still dominate the top 10 countries visited by Indonesian tourists.
Malaysia is the main destination for Indonesian tourists going abroad, contributing 27.98 percent, an increase from the previous year.
After Malaysia, the other nine countries are Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Japan, China, Australia and South Korea.
Saudi Arabia has the second largest share after Malaysia with 17.41 percent, followed by Singapore with 17 percent.
Indonesian tourists stayed an average of 15.05 days per trip in 2023.
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