ER
THE corona pandemic (COVID-19) really hit tourism and its supporting sectors. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia in March 2020 as many as 470.90 thousand.
According to the Head of BPS Suhariyanto in his presentation on a virtual basis, Monday (4/5) said the figure sharply decreased by 64.11% compared to the number of visits in March 2019 (year-on-year/yoy). When compared to February 2020, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in March 2020 also decreased by 45.50%.
“March 2020 the number of foreign tourists dropped dramatically. If we trace historical data, the number of foreign tourists which amounted to 470.90 thousand is almost the same as the number of foreign tourists in 2007. Even though the Indonesian government officially announced the COVID-19 pandemic in early March, the number of foreign tourists has shown a sharp decline since February 2020,” Suhariyanto said.
He added, for the record, foreign tourist arrivals in February 2020 reached 885.07 thousand, dropped 30.42% compared to January 2020 and fell 28.85% compared to February 2019. Since February there has been a sharp decline in foreign tourists, and predictably this will impact on tourism support sectors such as hotel room occupancy rates, transportation, creative industries, trade, and others.
“Based on the entrance, BPS recorded the number of foreign tourist arrivals coming through the air entrance (airport) in March 2020 decreased by 67.88% compared to the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the same month the previous year,” he noted.
Suhariyanto affirmed that the decline in foreign tourists occurred in almost all the main doors. Among others at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport decreased 64.72%, Soekarno-Hatta fell 75%, Kuala Namu Medan fell 65%. The same condition was also seen in foreign tourists coming by sea such as in Batam, Riau Islands, down 75%. In fact, in the port of Tanjung Uban it declined by 92%.
In addition, he continued foreign tourists visiting through land entrances also declined by 31.32%, with the highest percentage decline occurring at Jayapura entrances, Papua by 100%.
“Meanwhile, cumulatively (January-March 2020), the number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia reached 2.61 million visits, down 30.62% compared to the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the same period in 2019, which amounted to 3.76 million visits,” he concluded. [traveltext.id]
