JAKARTA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1.34 million visitor arrivals were recorded in Indonesia during August, up 18.3 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data released by Statistics Indonesia.
Malaysia was the largest source of visitors during the month, followed by Australia and the Chinese mainland.
"The increase in the number of visitor arrivals has been observed since April this year, following a decline in March," said Amalia Widyasanti, the agency's acting chief, during a press briefing on Tuesday.
She noted that the cumulative number of foreign tourist arrivals until August 2024 is the highest since 2020. Indonesia welcomed over 9 million foreign tourists from January to August, a 20.38 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023.
"However, if we compare it with the same period before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still relatively lower," Widyasanti said.
The Southeast Asian country aims to attract 17 million foreign tourists in 2024, about 7 million of which are expected to be contributed by Bali. ■