Indonesia says it is still on track to meet its target of 10 million foreign tourists this year, despite hiccups due to the closure of airports over volcanic ash and more recently haze from forest fires.
More than 850,000 foreign tourists arrived in the country in August according to the Central Statistics Agency, up by almost 3% year-on-year.
That put the total at 6.32 million for the first eight months of the year.
"We aim to welcome 850,000 foreign tourists in September, one million in both October and November and 1.1 million in December, thus achieving our 10 million arrivals target," Asia Pacific promotion director Vinsensius Jemadu said.
Vinsensius reaffirmed the country’s pledge to increase tourism to an ambitious 20 million a year within five years.
"We aim to welcome 12 million tourists next year and gradually increase it up to 20 million in 2019," Vinsensius.
The share of visitors from top market Australia dropped in August to just 8% of the total, directly due to air traffic disruption caused by volcanic ash spewed from Mount Raung.
Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport was closed down for several days with all flights grounded.
"That’s a logical consequence as 80% of Australian tourists entering Indonesia head to Bali," Vinsensius said.
