The National Statistics Board announced that January-October arrivals in 2006 still lags behind 7.91% compared to arrivals during the same period last year. Ten months tourist arrivals this year through 13 international entry air and seaports was 3,224,089, down compared to 3,501,077 in 2005.

During this period, the number of visitors to Jakarta has held steady, with a minimum decrease of 0.2% to a total of 922,793, while tourists to Bali still showed a shortfall of 17.23% compared to the first 10 months of last year. The difference has nonetheless narrowed compared to the 21.0% drop between January-September 2006 versus the same 9 months in 2005. 

Bali is today the number one entry point for visitors to Indonesia, contributing a 33.53% share of total foreign arrivals at 1,080,989 visitors during January through October, followed by Jakarta with 28.62%, and Batam with 25.56% share. (data courtesy Hilda Sabri of Bisnis Indonesia). 

The above statistics are indications that the country may not achieve its tourist arrival target of 5.5 million, as a decline of 5%-7% may be expected by the end of the year compared to 2005 arrivals. Thus, the industry now expects total arrivals to reach between 4.7 million to 4.9 million only in 2006, -  less than the 5 million total arrivals received last year.