Tourism Minister: Foreign Exchange From Tourism Sector Gradually Increases

Minister of Tourism Aried Yahya on the press conference at the Building III of the Ministry of State Secretariat, Jakarta, Tuesday (23/10). (Photo by: Agung/Public Relations).

The Indonesian Government continues to develop tourism sector in order to promote competitiveness and to make it as the main source of foreign exchange, according to Indonesian Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya

“The Government also continues to improve the development of national tourism infrastructure and accessibility that spread from all over Indonesia. Compared to the 2016 data, the tourism foreign exchange in 2017 grew by 14.77 percent,” Arief said at the 4-Year Report on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Vice President Jusuf Kalla Administration in Jakarta, Tuesday (23/10).

Based on the World Economic Forum data on competitiveness index, Indonesia’s index gradually increased in which Indonesia was placed on 70^th in 2013, on 50^th in 2015, and on 42^nd in 2017, while in 2019, Indonesia is targeted to reach rank 35^th.

On that occasion, the Minister said that the Wonderful Indonesia campaign in 2017 received 21 awards in 10 countries while in 2018 it received 31 awards from various events in 9 countries.

In the meantime, according to The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism growth in Indonesia is the ninth-highest in the world in 2018. “Also, we are number three in Asia and number one in ASEAN,” the Minister said, adding that in 2017 Indonesia is one of the fastest countries in the growth of tourism in the world.

“In ASEAN, our market grows 7 percent and grows 6.4 in the world. In other words, we grow 3 times from the market,” the Minister said.

Nevertheless, Arief acknowledged that Vietnam’s performance in 2017 was very good. “By carried out a massive deregulation, Vietnam became an investor darling and tourism darling,” he said.

At the end of the statement, the Minister expressed optimism that Indonesian tourism would become the largest foreign exchange producer by 2019, or at the latest by 2020. “I dare to claim that our tourism will be the biggest. I say maybe we will be the best,” Arief said, citing regional revenue of Samosir and Banyuwangi is increased due to the tourism sector compared to other regions.

Currently, according to Arief, the Wonderful Indonesia campaign has defeated ‘Amazing Thailand’ of Thailand and ‘Truly Asia’ of Malaysia. “I think we can beat Thailand again in 2024,” he concluded.

In the meantime, Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara said that his duty in 4-year on President Jokowi-Vice President Kalla Administration is to build infrastructure on information flow connectivity. “At the end of 2015, our initial ranking in Asia was still number 4, after Singapore and Thailand,” Rudiantara said at the end of his brief statement. (FID/EN) (GWH/EP/Naster)