JAKARTA, 6 January 2021: Indonesia’s tourist arrival count dropped more than 73.60% for the first 10 months of 2020 to record just 3.89 million visits.
In 2019, Indonesia reported 14.73 million visits and had forecast 2020 would close with around 18 million. No surprises at the massive decline, January to November, when the only weapons to slow Covid-19 transmissions are lockdowns and quarantine.
Countries across Southeast Asia are reporting similar deep cuts of around 80% as governments attempted to slow the spread of Covid-19 infections. Thailand reported just 6.695,840 visitors over the same 10-month period down from 35,698,914 million last year. The decline was a massive 81.38%. In December a second wave hit Thailand promoting lockdown measures in 28 of 77 provinces so it is very likely arrivals for the entire year will fall short of 7 million.
Malaysia registered 4,252,997 tourist arrivals in the first half of 2020, representing a decrease of 68.2% compared to the same period in 2019.
In 2019, Malaysia received over 13.3 million tourist arrivals from January until June, and for the entire year, arrivals closed at 20.1 million.
The Philippines faired no better. It reported 787,307 visits for January and was on track for a good year. But the visitor count dipped to 418,126 in February and 113,286 in March. An April lockdown prompted the Department of Tourism to throw in the towel saying it would wisely concentrate on saving domestic tourism. A ban on international travel to the Philippines introduced in April eased in October, but restrictions on some nationalities resumed this week as a new variant of Covid-19 emerged.
