Jakarta, Feb 16 (IANS): The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia last year rose by 11 per cent, a top official announced here on Thursday.
In December, a total of 1.11 million foreign visitors came to the country, 12.87 per cent more from a year earlier, National Statistic Bureau chief Kecuk Suhariyanto said.
In Bali, the centre of Indonesia's tourism industry, foreign tourist arrivals grew 20.39 per cent to 437,946 people in December compared with the same period last year, Xinhua news agency quoted the chief as saying.
Most of the foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in December were from Singapore with 16.95 per cent of the total, followed by Malaysia with 13.97 per cent, China with 11.07 per cent, Australia with 9.96 per cent and India with 4.18 per cent.
Indonesia expects 12 million foreign holiday-makers coming into the country this year and rise to 20 million in 2019.