Tourist arrivals in RI up 13 pct

"The increase in the number of tourist arrivals is quite promising as in the two preceding years only a small number of the tens of millions of foreign tourists visiting Southeast Asia came to Indonesia," Umar Kuswara, director of people`s empowerment at the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Ukus Kuswara, said here Friday.

Quoting data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Kuswara said more than 5.3 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in 2004 with their spendings estimated at US$4.797 million.