RI eyes 12.7m foreign tourist arrivals in 2019

JAKARTA. Indonesia is aiming for higher growth in foreign tourism within the next five years as the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has set a target of 12.7 million foreign visitors by 2019, a 25 percent increase from the estimated 9.5 million inbound tourists this year.

That was according to the ministry’s 2015-2019 National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) draft, marketing director general Esthy Reko Astuti said on Tuesday.

In the past five years, the number of tourists has increased 35 percent from 7 million in 2010 to an expected 9.5 million in 2014, according to data from the ministry.

“Backed by this significant growth, we’ve decided to increase the growth in foreign tourist arrivals [in the next five years] from 20 percent in the previous RPJMN to 25 percent,” Esthy said during a forum group discussion on Tuesday.

The ministry will boost tourism promotion in Middle Eastern countries, as recent data shows that four member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) top the list of the fastest growing numbers of tourists arriving in the archipelago in the first four months of this year.

Bahrain topped the list with 73.56 percent growth, followed by Saudi Arabia (54.42 percent), the United Arab Emirates (49.58 percent) and Egypt (38.07 percent). Overall, foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia grew 10.6 percent from January to April this year compared with the same period last year to 2.9 million tourists, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

“We have to generate more tourists from these countries because based on our experience, when a Middle Eastern airline opens direct flights to Indonesia, they tend to attract more outbound tourists from Indonesia rather than inbound tourists to Indonesia,” Esthy told reporters on the sidelines of the discussion.

The seat capacity of foreign airlines that serve routes from Middle Eastern countries to Indonesia amounts to 52,994 seats per week, while that of Indonesian airlines amounts to 18,424 seats per week, based on data from state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II.

“There is high seat capacity on planes coming from the Middle Eastern countries, however, it turns out that most of them are carrying our migrant workers, not tourists,” Esthy said. “We need to boost our promotion in the Middle East to attract more visitors from the region, which did not even reach 100,000 last year.”

BPS director for IT and Tourism Sentot Widoyono said that the ministry should aim for a higher target, because the fast-approaching ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) would have a significant impact on the country’s tourism sector. “The ministry should have more confidence that the country will attract more foreign visitors from our neighboring countries by the time the AEC is implemented, be it for tourism or business trips.”

Over the next five years, the ministry will also focus its promotion in another 15 markets that contribute around 80 percent of visits to Indonesia, namely Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia, according to the RPJMN.