Earthquakes take toll on tourism in Indonesia’s Lombok

A beach in Senggigi, North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, is deserted on Aug. 9. SETO WARDHANA, THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

JAKARTA – The recent earthquakes in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, have taken a serious toll on tourism, as arrivals to the island plummeted 69 percent in August, according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).

The number of tourists visiting Lombok dropped from 13,980 in July to only 4,306 in August, BPS head Suhariyanto said on Friday.

“The earthquake was the reason for the drastic decline in tourist arrivals in August,” he said in a press conference, adding that the average hotel occupancy declined from 60.44 percent in July to a rate of 28.18 percent in August.

Nationwide, tourism arrivals in August were down 1.93 percent from the previous month.

However, the BPS revealed that tourist arrivals were still up on the year, rising by 8.44 percent from 1.39 million in August 2017 to 1.51 million in August 2018.

Suhariyanto said tourist arrivals from January to August 2018 had reached 10.58 million, or 12.30 percent higher than in the corresponding period last year.

Indonesia targets to welcome 17 million tourists this year and 20 million next year. The government expects next week’s IMF-World Bank Meeting 2018 in Bali to bring in more tourists to Indonesia.