Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Central Bureau of Statistic (BPS) has recorded that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia during April 2011 reached 608,100 people, slightly up by 1.68 percent from March.

"It`s just a slight increase from 598,100 people in March," BPS Deputy of Service and Distribution Statistic Djamal said here Wednesday.

It was an increase by 9.39 percent from April 2010 which was 555,900 foreign tourist arrivals.

Of the total, Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali recorded 224,423 arrivals, Soekarno Hatta Airport in Jakarta 151,989 arrivals, Hang Nadim Airport in Batam 92,055 arrivals, Tanjung Uban Airport in Bintang 26,206 arrivals, Polinia Airports in Medan 14,998 arrivals and Juanda Airport in Surabaya 14,179 arrivals.

"The number of arrivals at Ngurah Rai airport went up 10.8 percent from March. Most foreign tourists visiting Bali came from Australia," Djamal said.

April was low season and therefore the number of tourist arrivals at some airports went down, he said.

From January to April 2011, the total number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia was 2.32 million people, up 72 percent from the same period in 2010 which was 2.17 million.

The hotel room occupation rate in 20 provinces in April 2011 reached 52.1 percent, or up 2.41 points from 49.69 percent in April 2010, and an increase of 0.15 point from March 2011.

The stay duration of foreign tourists at star-rated hotels in 20 provinces during April 2011 was 2.07 days, up 0.08 day from that in April 2010.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has set itself the target of 7.7 million foreign tourist arrivals this year, a tourism official said.

"We are optimistic that the target will be achieved," Rita Sofia, promotion section chief of the Marketing Directorate for Java of the Tourism Ministry, said here on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition on Central Java tourism , Rita said that the target this year was higher than that of last year which was only seven million.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/M027)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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