JAKARTA: Malaysia has emerged as the leading source of tourists to Indonesia in August 2024, with 188,750 visitors, accounting for 14.09 per cent of total arrivals, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
The acting head of BPS, Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, reported that visitors from Malaysia increased 6.21 per cent compared to the previous month and nearly 8.0 per cent compared to August last year.
"Following Malaysia, Australian visitors numbered 153,720, while Chinese tourists made 126,080 visits," she said in a statement, adding that most Malaysian and Chinese tourists arrived via Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Banten, while Australian visitors entered through I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali.
In total, she said tourist visits to the republic reached 1.34 million in August, marking a 2.23 per cent increase from July and an 18.30 per cent rise compared to August last year.
On average, tourists spent of 8.27 nights in the country in August, with ASEAN visitors staying the shortest at 3.54 nights and African tourists staying the longest at 15.66 nights.
In terms of nationality, Yemeni tourists recorded the longest individual stay, averaging 27.83 nights, in sharp contrast to the brief average of 2.02 nights for visitors from Hong Kong.
Amalia also highlighted Indonesia's tourism recovery with 9.09 million tourist visits from January to August 2024, marking a 20.38 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. – BERNAMA