Indonesian tourism aims to surpass Thailand in 5 years

Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya says growth in the Indonesian tourist industry may excel that of Thailand within the next five years.

“We can beat ‘Amazing Thailand’ and ‘Malaysia Truly Asia within about five years’,” said Arief in a discussion at the State Secretariat in Jakarta.

“In 2014, Indonesia ranked 70th in the world tourist Industry, but leaped to the 20th spot in 2017,” he added.

Indonesia has hosted around 14 million foreign tourists in 2017, adding to the state revenue around USD 15.2 billion; while Thailand had 35 million foreign tourists in the same year with total revenue of USD 45 billion.

Meanwhile, Indonesia aims to welcome 17 million foreign tourists in 2018, with total revenue to the state around USD 17 billion.

“So we project that in 2019, the tourist sector will contribute USD 20 billion to the economy,” said the minister.

Indonesia was declared as having the ninth fastest growing tourist sector in the world in 2017, the third in Asia and fastest growing in Southeast Asia.

Growth in the tourism sector of Indonesia during the year 2017 is reported to be 22 per cent, much higher than the 6.4 per cent average growth of global tourism and 7 per cent average growth in the ASEAN tourist industry.