Monday, December 1, 2003
Indonesia tourist numbers recover after Bali blasts
Reuters Jakarta, December 1
More foreigners visited Indonesia in October than a year earlier as the country's tourism sector recovered from bombings in Bali, its main resort, in October 2002, the statistics bureau said on Monday.
Te bombings at two night clubs in a Bali tourist district killed at least 202 people, most of them foreigners, and devastated the country's $5 billion foreign tourism sector.
But, after months of hotel discounts to tempt back tourists after the violence, figures issued on Monday by the Indonesia statistics bureau showed visitor numbers to Bali had returned to pre-bombing levels.
The number of foreign visitors to Indonesia in October 2003 jumped 17 per cent from a year earlier.
Despite the rise in the monthly tally to 356,075, the total number of visitors to Indonesia in the first 10 months of the year was still 15.4 per cent below the same period last year.
The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) elsewhere in Asia this year and further attacks, including the bombing of a luxury hotel in Jakarta in August, have also hit the crippled tourism sector.
Arrivals in Bali jumped 18 percent from October last year, taking them back to 2001 levels, with 102,992 visitors.
The Indonesian government has hunted down and convicted dozens of Muslim militants accused of carrying out the attacks.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.