REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Riau provincial government has set a target to attract some 6.5 million domestic and foreign tourists in 2018. In a bid to achieve the target, the Riau administration will involve academicians, industrialists, government officials, the media, non-governmental organizations, and the community, Riau Governor Arsyadjuliandi Rachman stated here, Monday.

Of the total 6.5 million tourists, some 61 thousand are expected to be foreign tourists, and the rest, domestic tourists. This year, the duration of stay of each tourist is expected to reach 3.75 days.

In 2017, Riau had received 101,904 foreign tourists, exceeding the target by 177.2 percent, or 44,388 foreigners.

The foreign tourists had entered Riau through the Sultan Syarief Kasim II International Airport, Dumai Seaport, and Bengkalis Seaport. The number of domestic tourists visiting Riau Province had reached 6,534,683 people.

In 2016, only 66,130 foreign tourists had visited Riau Province. Meanwhile, a total of 2,074,534 foreign tourists had paid a visit to the Riau Islands Province last year, up 8.04 percent from the previous year.

"Similar to the previous year, most foreign tourists visiting Riau Islands from January to December 2017 came from Singapore," Chief of the BPS Office in Riau Islands Province Panusunan Siregar had remarked in Pekanbaru, Riau Islands, recently.

Last year, the province had received 1,061,469 tourists from Singapore and 252,058 tourists from Malaysia. The number of Chinese tourists had reached 162,250, and the number of Indian tourists stood at 89,578.

The number of South Korean tourists reached 61,729, down by 3.99 percent.

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