Tourists from Middle Eastern countries topped the list of tourist arrivals with the highest growth in the archipelago in May this year, Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data shows.

Revealed on Tuesday, BPS data shows that Egyptians dominated the May list with an increase of about 70 percent compared to the same month last year.

Trailing behind Egypt were the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 68 percent, Bahrain with 62 percent and Saudi Arabia with 44 percent.

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said on Tuesday that the increasing number of direct flights to Indonesia significantly supported the rise in the number of tourists from the Middle East.

“Even though the number is still small compared to the number of foreign tourists from other countries, we see a very promising growth from the Middle East, especially when we are on the way to developing our sharia tourism,” she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Ministry data shows that the number of tourist arrivals from Saudi Arabia reached 48,192 in the first four months of this year, increasing by 54 percent year-on-year.

The ministry could not immediately provide data on the number of tourist arrivals from Saudi Arabia for the first five months.

The number of tourists from the UAE reached 3,186 in the January-April period, increasing 49.5 percent from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the seat capacity of foreign airlines serving routes from Middle Eastern countries to Indonesia amounts to 52,994 seats per week, while that of Indonesian airlines amounts to 18,424 seats per week, according to data from state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II.

The ministry launched its initiative last year to develop sharia tourism and promote Indonesia as a Muslim-friendly tourist destination, aiming to attract at least 200,000 Muslim travelers this year, up from 160,000 last year.

Malaysia, in comparison, hosts 700,000 Muslim travelers per year.

BPS data also shows that cumulatively, 3.7 million tourists entered destinations across the archipelago from January to May 2014, a 9.96 percent increase year-on-year.

Mari said that even though May was considered a low season period, the number of foreign tourists in that month increased 7.37 percent compared to the same period last year, when 700,708 foreign tourists entered Indonesia. She added that should the percentage increase be maintained at between 9 and 10 percent, the number of foreign tourist arrivals this year would exceed the target of 9.5 million tourists.


source : here