1st Ld-Writethru: Indonesia sees increase in foreign tourist arrivals in April
Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:
Indonesia's foreign tourist arrivals saw a 14.45 percent rise in April from a year earlier, after increasing 8.96 percent in the previous month, the statistics bureau said on Wednesday.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in April grew to 811,233 from 806,118 in March, according to a report on the bureau's website.
Among them, the number of visitor from China coming into Indonesia in April grew 11.5 percent to 107,050 people on year, according to Suryamin, head of National Statistic Bureau.
China ranks third as sources of foreign holidaymakers coming into Indonesia in April after Singapore and Malaysia, he said.
The Indonesian government is robustly campaigning to expand tourism in Southeast Asia's largest economy as it targets to attract 20 million foreign tourists annually by 2019.
Last year alone, around 9.73 million holidaymakers visited the archipelago. That is still lower compared to Indonesia's neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Thailand who each have attracted over 20 million international tourists.
The government has waived tourist visa requirements for foreign nationals from 169 nations as a bid to achieve the target.
Indonesia expects the arrivals of holiday makers from China to jump to 2.1 million people this year from 1.3 million last year. Endit