Foreign Tourist Visit Hit Peak in July Since Start of Pandemic: BPS

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has announced that foreign tourist visit hit its highest level in July 2022 since the start of COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

Head of BPS Margo Yuwono said there were 477,000 foreign tourist visits recorded in July, making it the highest figure since the pandemic started.

“This is an exciting news because tourists bring massive multiplier effect to economy, and the revival of tourism can contribute to economic recovery in Indonesia,” Yuwono said on Thursday, September 1, as reported by Antara.

Based on arrival, the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals (246,442) were at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, followed by Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta (119,179) and Batam (56,610).

The visits in July 2022 increased by 38.08 percent compared to the previous month and rose significantly by 6,396.46 percent compared to July 2021.

BPS noted the growing trend was driven by increasing mobility as the handling of the pandemic continued improving.

“This is because the handling of COVID-19 improved, and so did global trust in Indonesia. These encourage the increasing foreign tourist visits,” Yuwono said.

BPS also revealed that, cumulatively, foreign tourist visits between January and July were at 1,220,170.

And based on their countries of origin, the majority of tourists in July were from Australia (84,600 arrivals), Singapore (59,800), and Malaysia (43,600).