The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in 2005 decreased to 4.07 million people, or 10. 28 percent lower than in 2004, Statistic Bureau announced here Wednesday.

The bureau chief Choirul Maksum told a press conference that the number of foreign tourists coming to the Indonesis's beautiful resort of Bali island in December last year rose to 81,000 people, or 19.81 percent lower than in the previous month.

Indonesian Minister of Culture and Turism Jero Wacik told Xinhua earlier that that the decline of foreing tourist arrival last year is significantly caused by the Bali bombing in October last year that killed 20 people including three suicide bombers.

In addition to the impact of tsunami that was felt at the beginning of last year, bird flu outbreak had insignificantly contributed to the decline, he said. "People still worried to travel," he added.

Indonesia targeted between five to six million foreign tourist arrivals in 2005 and 5.5 to 6 million this year, according to Wacik.

Source: Xinhua