(TAN): Indonesia’s tourism sector suffered a heavy blow owing to COVID-19 after foreign tourist arrivals plunged over 64% in March compared to the same month a year ago.
Data from the country’s central statistics agency BPS showed overseas arrivals nosedived 64.11% to 470,900 during the month versus the comparable period last year. Further, 45.5% fewer foreign visitors arrived in Indonesia in March compared to February 2020.
BPS chief Suhariyanto reportedly said Indonesia’s foreign tourist traffic in March has dropped to the lowest level since 2009.
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“The number of tourists from all over the world is declining sharply because of the social movement restrictions, lockdowns and flight restrictions in effect in different countries,” he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.
Arrivals buckled after Chinese tourists, who usually make up one of the largest sections of foreign visitors to the South East Asian nation, plunged 97.4% year-on-year to just over 196,000 in March, reports said. Arrivals from Hong Kong reportedly plunged 96% and those from Kuwait and Australia went down 89% and 56%, respectively, during the month.
“The drop is so severe and we need to be wary of it. Such a level of decline will greatly affect the tourism industry and its supporting sectors,” Suhariyanto added.
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As a result of the massive drop, foreign visitor numbers in the first three months of 2020 slumped 30.62% to 2.6 million from 3.76 million visits in the year-ago period.
Hotel occupancy rate too suffered, dipping 20.64 points to an average of 32.24% in March 2020 compared to 52.88% in March 2019, the lowest in five years, as per reports.
Indonesia has reported 12,071 cases of infection including 872 deaths, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.
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