Indonesia sees sharp rise in foreign visitors in Jan-Feb

[JAKARTA] Indonesia reported a jump in foreign visitors entering through its main airports and seaports in the first two months of the year, after a gradual relaxation of Covid-19 travel restrictions, official data showed on Friday (Apr 1).

The data from the statistics bureau showed 33,593 foreigners arrived in the South-east Asian country in January-February via its main entry points, up 260 per cent from the same period a year ago.

The number of visitors in the first 2 months of the year though was still far below pre-pandemic levels, when typically in the same period there could be nearly 2 million overseas visitors.

The majority of foreign visitors in the last 2 months were citizens from China, Russia and South Korea.

The number of Russian visitors jumped more than five-fold in the first 2 months of 2022 to around 2,300.

The latest available data did not include foreign visitors that crossed land borders or those who arrived via smaller ports.

Indonesia's resort island of Bali started welcoming back travellers from all countries earlier this year, after reopening to visitors from a limited group of countries in October, 2021. REUTERS