Jakarta - The number of tourists visiting Indonesia rose 13 percent to 5.51 million in 2007 from 4.87 million in 2006, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed Friday.
The rise comes as Indonesia enters its official "Visit Indonesia 2008" campaign, which aims to increase tourist arrivals to 7 million for this year.
The campaign had a lacklustre start after billboards and even national carrier Garuda jets bearing the campaign`s slogan bore an embarrassing grammatical mistake.
Tourist arrivals through 15 main entry points nationwide in 2007 grew 13.4 percent to 4.54 million, according to the figures.
The increase was led by a 31.1 percent rise to 1.74 million arrivals on the resort island of Bali during the year.
In December alone, tourist arrivals through 15 entry points reached 431,000, an increase of 7.9 percent from November.
The data also showed that foreign tourists spent 5.3 billion dollars in 2007, an increase of 20.5 percent from 4.4 billion dollars a year before.
Indonesia boasts an array of attractions and varied cultures across its 17,000 odd islands, but the focal point of tourism remains the Hindu enclave of Bali.
The country still trails behind nearby Malaysia and Thailand, which attracted 18 million and nearly 14 million visitors in 2006 respectively.
Source: afp.google.com (2 Februari 2008)
