Tourists visit Melasti Beach in Badung regency, Bali on June 24. (Photo: Antara) Jakarta (VNA) - StatisticsIndonesia (BPS) announced on July 1 that Indonesia had welcomed only 163,646foreign tourist arrivals in May, a drop of 86.9 percent year-on-year, dueto the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the figure represented a 3.1 percent month-on-monthincrease from 158,718 recorded in April.
BPS head Suhariyanto said the country’s tourism is still being severely impactedby the COVID-19 pandemic . The government has prepared a strategy to revivetourism, but the recovery will take time because we don’t know when theCOVID-19 crisis will end, he said.
Tourism has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirusoutbreak, with many tourist destinations empty since March, as countries aroundthe world imposed travel restrictions and the implementation of large-scalesocial restrictions (PSBB) in Indonesia forced people to stay at home.
Decreasing visits were recorded at almost all points of entry, he said, addingthat annual arrival figures at major airports, such as Ngurah Rai (in Denpasar,Bali), Soekarno-Hatta (in Tangerang, Banten) and Juanda (in Surabaya, EastJava) international airports, have dropped almost 100 percent.
Increases in arrivals were recorded at only several points ofentry, such as Batam, Riau Island, which has become a major point of entry forvisitors from Malaysia and Singapore.
Hotels across Indonesia have also recordedprolonged low occupancy rates. BPS’ data show the average occupancy rate ofstar hotels in May was only 14.45 percent.
From January to May, Indonesia recorded just 2.9million foreign tourist visits, a 53.56 percent drop from the same period lastyear./.
VNA
