Indonesia's foreign tourist arrivals start ticking up in May

Source: Xinhua | 2020-07-02

The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia commenced picking up in May with the reopening of tourist destinations, which was expected to further boost their arrivals, the National Agency of Statistics announced here Wednesday.

Head of the agency Kecuk Suhariyanto said that the country's foreign tourist arrivals started creeping up by 3.10 percent to 163,650 in May on the monthly basis, still the figure remained significantly low, dropping by 86.9 percent in the month, compared with that in the same period last year.

"The figure slightly rose compared with that of last month. The hike happened in several places," he said, adding that the foreign tourist arrivals steeply dropped by 87.44 percent to 160,040 in April annualized.

The agency conceded that the tourism sector has been dashed by the COVID-19 pandemic since February, according to Suhariyanto.

The government has resumed operations of tourist destinations across the country under tight health protocols, aiming at restoring the tourism sector which has grounded nearly to a halt as the policies on partial lockdowns and physical distancing had cooped up millions of people for weeks and hampered their mobility.

The condition experienced by the tourism sector was worsened by the restrictions on air travel to rein the virus pandemic.