Indonesia foreign arrivals rebounded in September

Passengers arrive at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File photo

JAKARTA  – Foreign arrivals to Indonesia in September hit their highest level since the start of the pandemic, official data showed on Tuesday, as more visitors returned to resort destinations like Bali after an easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

There were about 538,300 arrivals in September, up from only 5,000 in the same month a year ago, with the majority going to Bali, said Setianto, deputy head of Statistics Indonesia.

Arrivals in September were slightly ahead of the previous month’s figure of 510,200.

For the January-Sept period, Indonesia saw 2.27 million visitors compared with 86,245 in the same period last year, when travel restrictions to curb COVID-19 were in place.

However, arrivals remained far below the pre-pandemic levels in the same periods of 2018 and 2019, when Indonesia had nearly 10 million foreign visitors.