REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Some 15.81 million tourists had visited Indonesia in 2018. The figure was up 12.58 percent, from 14.04 million in the same period last year, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"We hope that the number of foreign tourist arrivals would continue to increase, as those can encourage the national economy," Head of BPS Suhariyanto stated here on Friday.

Nearly 10.08 million tourists traveled to Indonesia by air, 3.22 million by sea, and 2.51 million by land. As many as 6.02 million tourists arrived in Indonesia via the Ngurah Rai Airport and 2.8 million tourists via the Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

Meanwhile, as many as 1.88 million tourists arrived in Batam by sea and 523 thousand tourists via Tanjung Uban. As many as 104 thousand tourists arrived in Jayapura by land, and 85 thousand tourists arrived in Atambua.

In 2018, the number of foreign tourists coming from the ASEAN region had increased, which was 20.60 percent as compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists coming from the Middle East region had decreased as many as 6.13 percent. In terms of nationality, Malaysia took the lead as the country contributing the highest number of foreign tourists to Indonesia in 2018, with 2.50 million travelers; followed by China, with 2.14 million travelers, and Singapore, with 1.77 million tourists.

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