In full-year 2017 Indonesia welcomed a total of 14.04 million foreign visitor arrivals, a new record high and up 21.9% year-on-year (y/y) from 11.52 million foreign visitor arrivals in the preceding year. However, the country failed to achieve its 2017 target of attracting 15 million foreign tourists. Main reason was heavy volcanic activity at Bali’s Mount Agung.
Local authorities had to close Ngurah Rai International Airport for several days in November 2017 due to the eruptions of Mount Agung, the volcano that is located on Bali (the most popular tourist destination in Indonesia). Currently, Bali accounts for about 40% of total foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia.
In the month December alone, tourist arrivals to Bali plunged nearly 30% (y/y). Particularly Chinese visitors to this island dropped severely as the Chinese government had rapidly issued a travel warning for Bali. According to reports in local media, visitor arrivals from China started to recover in January 2018.
For the Tourism Industry of Indonesia, the Chinese market is the biggest target because there are more than 100 million outbound Chinese tourists each year. In total Indonesia targets to attract 17 million foreign visitor arrivals in full-year 2018, up 21% (y/y) from arrivals realization in 2017.
