Indonesia tourist arrivals up in 2009, spending down

(AFX UK Focus) 2010-02-02 04:38
REFILE-Indonesia tourist arrivals up in 2009, spending down

JAKARTA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Overseas tourist arrivals in Indonesia edged up 1.4 percent to 6.32 million in 2009, data showed on Monday, but the fallout of the global economic crisis meant they spent less in the Southeast Asian country.

The statistics bureau said overall spending by overseas tourists fell about 13.7 percent to $6.3 billion last year.

"The drop in spending may indicate that the visitors were mostly from neighbouring countries who usually stay for a short period of time. Tourists from far away countries preferred to go to their neighboring places to cut their holiday spending," said Yanti Sukamdani, chairwoman of Indonesia's hotel association.
The average length of tourists' stay in Indonesia fell 10.4 percent to 7.69 days last year, from 8.58 days in the previous year. Average spending was also down 15.5 percent to $995.93 from $1,178.54, the data showed.
Despite the slight increase in arrivals, this still fell short of a government target of 6.45 million, and is well below the number of tourists visiting neigbouring countries such as Singapore and Thailand.
The government aims to attract 7 million foreign tourists in 2010 and expects foreign tourists to spend around $1,000 each, making about $7 billion of inflows into the country.
"Indonesia is likely to meet its tourist target this year on a recovery in the global economy," Sukamdani said, adding airlines such as state carrier Garuda, Qatar Airways and Emirates planned to add new flights to Indonesia this year.
Tourism accounts for about 3 percent of gross domestic product in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, but some areas such as the island of Bali are heavily dependent on tourism for jobs and growth.
Indonesia's tourist attractions range from rainforests and beaches to volcanoes and ancient temples. The industry has shown a recovery after being battered by the Bali bombings in 2002, the 2004 tsunami, earthquakes and outbreaks of bird flu.

(Reporting by Dicky Kristanto and Andreas Ismar; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

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