JAKARTA: Indonesia’s tourist sector posted mixed results in April, with rising foreign visitor arrivals and stronger hotel occupancy rates contrasting with a decline in domestic travel.
Data released by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) on Tuesday showed international tourist arrivals reached 1.25 million visits in April, up 7.22% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 14.75% from the previous month.
Hotel occupancy also improved, with star-rated hotels recording an average occupancy rate of 48.83%, up 1.85 percentage points from a year earlier.
Deputy for distribution and services statistics at BPS, Pudji Ismartini, said the figure marked the highest monthly foreign tourist arrival count since 2020, indicating that Indonesia’s tourism recovery remained on track despite ongoing global economic uncertainty.
The gains suggest Indonesia continues to benefit from recovering regional travel demand, particularly from neighbouring countries and key Asia-Pacific markets.
Malaysia remained the largest source of visitors, accounting for 16.65% of total arrivals, followed by Australia at 12.65% and China at 10.73%.
BPS attributed part of the increase in foreign arrivals to seasonal factors in major source countries, including holiday periods in Australia and France’s spring break, which typically encourage overseas travel.
Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport and Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport remained the country’s primary gateways for international visitors, together handling nearly 88% of all foreign arrivals arriving by air.
The increase in foreign arrivals pushed cumulative international visits during the first four months of 2026 to 4.68 million, an 8.24% increase from the same period last year.
Yet the upbeat international figures were offset by weakness in domestic tourism.
Domestic tourist trips fell to 97.55 million in April, down 24.14% y-o-y and 22.79% from March. The decline partly reflected seasonal factors, as the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holiday period occurring in late March and early April this year, boosting travel activity in the previous month.
The trend was visible across most provinces with West Java, East Java and Central Java remaining the largest sources of domestic travellers, but all recorded double-digit declines compared with the same month last year.
The weakness extended to overseas travel by Indonesians, with outbound trips falling 30.54% y-o-y to 643,660 journeys in April, while cumulative outbound travel during January to April declined 3.49% from a year earlier.
Malaysia remained the most popular overseas destination, attracting nearly 30% of Indonesian travellers, followed by Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies Association secretary-general Budijanto Ardiansjah attributed the decline in outbound travel to the rupiah’s weakness against the United States dollar and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which have increased both travel costs and safety concerns. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
