Tourist Arrivals Reach One Million

Mataram (Antara Bali) - The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) provincial government has claimed that the number of tourists visiting Lombok, Sumbawa and small islands in the province last year reached 1.01 million.

"The number of tourist arrivals was contained in the report of the head of the provincial culture and tourism office. The report was then submitted to the deputy governor and passed on to the governor," said head of the provincial government's public relations and protocol secretariat, Tri Budiprayitno, here on Sunday.

The report of tourist arrivals is one of the 65 development performance indicators in the Medium-Term Regional Development Plan (RPJMD) of 2008-2013, he said.

The evaluation of realized target of 65 performance indicators was earlier discussed at the coordination meeting of all leaders of regional apparatuses working units (SKPD) of the NTB provincial government on Tuesday (Jan 15).

The coordination meeting was chaired by NTB Governor Zainul Majdi M TGH, and Deputy Governor H Badrul Munir, who stressed the importance of achieving the next target, especially a number of indicators which still fell short of target until 2012.

A total of 39 of 65 development performance indicators contained in the RPJMD of 2008-2013 exceeded the target including tourist arrivals. Seventeen indicators belong to optimistic category to be achieved in 2013. Only nine indicators missed the target so that special attention is needed.

According to the report, the number of foreign and domestic tourists visiting NTB reached 544,501 in 2008, consisting of 213,926 foreign tourists and 330,575 domestic tourists, he said.

The number of tourists visiting NTB was recorded at 619,097 in 2009, consisting of 232,252 foreign tourists and 386,845 domestic tourists. In 2010, a total of 725,388 tourists visited NTB consisting of  282,161 foreign tourists and 443,227 domestic tourists.

The number of tourist arrivals increased to 886,880 in 2011, consisting of 364,196 foreign tourists and 522,684 domestic tourists. He said the number of tourists visiting NTB was recorded at  1,011,214 in 2012 consisting of 411,073 foreign tourists and 600,141 domestic tourists. (*/T007)