Tourist arrivals in Indonesia down by 2.96 %

The number of holidaymakers coming into Indonesia in April decreased by 2.96 percent to 626,100 on yearly basis due to seasonality, the Statistic Bureau announced said here on Friday. "This is because of the seasonality factor, people are normally reluctant to travel in April,"Head of the bureau named only Suryamin told a press conference. Indonesia foreign tourist arrivals rose to 7.65 million people last year, higher than that of 7.0 million people in the previous year, the bureau said. Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu has said that the debt crisis in Europe would not have a significant impact on the country's tourism industry as the government has diversified the market. Indonesia expected 9.5 million holidaymekers visiting the country by 2014, one million of which from China, the minister told Xinhua. The Indonesian tourism industry has recovered from the impact of terrorism, and epidemics.