The post-pandemic Covid-19 recovery in Indonesia has been performing very well in several sectors, especially in tourism. This is evidenced by the increasing number of foreign tourists visiting the country. However, according to the latest data, the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia decreased in February 2023.
According to data from dataindonesia.id on Wednesday (3/4/2023), the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that there were 701,931 foreign tourist visits to Indonesia in February 2023. This number decreased by 4.62% compared to the previous month, which had 735,947 visits.
Meanwhile, the number of domestic tourist visits increased by 567.27% compared to the previous year, with 105,195 visits in February 2022.
Breaking down the data further, foreign tourist visits through the main entry point by air transportation increased slightly by 0.58% (m-to-m) to 488,080 times.
On the other hand, foreign tourist visits through the main entry point by sea transportation decreased by 14.64% (m-to-m) to 108,633 times. Foreign tourist visits through the main entry point by land transportation increased by 20.79% (m-to-m) to 10,140 times.
The number of foreign tourist visits through border entry points decreased by 17.35% (m-to-m) to 95,078 visits. Malaysia contributed the majority of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia in February 2023, with 127,020 visits, an increase of 13.12% on a monthly basis.
Australia came in second with 84,770 foreign tourist visits, followed by 75,190 visits from Singapore. The total number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia was 1,437,878 in January-February 2023, an increase of 532.94% compared to the same period the previous year.
Therefore, in February, the majority of tourist visits to South Sulawesi were from Malaysia, with 1,090 out of a total of 1,488 visitors.
The head of the Central Statistics Agency of South Sulawesi, Suntono, said that Malaysian tourists have been visiting the region since at least last year, with 4,143 out of 5,914 foreign tourist visits in 2022 coming from Malaysia.
Since the beginning of this year, Malaysian tourists have consistently contributed to the visit rate to South Sulawesi. In January 2023, Malaysia still had the highest number of visitors with 628, or a total of 1,718 who have visited South Sulawesi in 2023.
