Jakarta (VNA)🎉 - Indonesia recorded 8.36 million visits by foreign tourists until September this year or an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year, reported Antara news agency.

The increase gave greater optimism that the target of 12 million visits by foreign tourists to the country this year would be achieved, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on November 3. "In three consecutive months - July-August and September, the number of visits exceeded one million. We hope that the number would be larger in October, November and December," the minister was quoted by Antara as saying. In September, there were 1,006,653 foreign tourist arrivals or an increase of 9.40 percent year-on-year from 920,128 in the same month last year, he said in a statement. Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) and the Tourism Ministry, the number of foreign tourist visits in the first nine months of the year was 8,362,963 or 8.51 percent higher than 7,707,034 visits in the same period last year. The highest increase was recorded in the visits of tourist from Egypt up 48.72 percent, Bahrain up 46.33 percent, India 28.90 percent, China 24.15 percent, and France 23.15 percent. In September alone, significant increase was recorded in the number of visits of tourists from Bahrain, up 46.84 percent, Egypt up 42.86 percent, China up 28.08 percent, India 26.61 percent, and France 18.92 percent. The Tourism Ministry has launched intensive promotional campaigns by organising cultural festivals in a number of areas to attract foreign tourists in border areas.-VNA