JAKARTA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia welcomed 1.04 million foreign tourists in October, an increase of 18.55 percent year-on-year, an official at the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said on Thursday.
BPS Deputy for Distribution and Services Statistics Sasmito Hadi Wibowo said the increase was due to government's massive promotion moves in tourism, coupled with the development of tour destinations jointly carried out by government and private sector.
Indonesia saw foreign visitors figure of above 1 million in the past several months this year, according to Sasmito.
Indonesia has set a target to attract 12 million foreign visitors this year, higher than 10 million it recorded last year.
The Tourism Ministry and related government agencies are making efforts to further boost the influx of foreign visitors by developing 10 "New Bali" tour destinations across the nation.
Those 10 new tour sites were designed to par with the resort island of Bali in attracting foreign tourists.
The archipelago nation is expected to welcome 20 million visitors by 2019 with earnings from tourism of over 24 billion U.S. dollars.
