Extreme Weather and Economic Conditions Become Challenges

The top five countries of origin for foreign tourists visiting Indonesia in January-July 2023 are Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, China and Timor Leste. Tourists from China who were expected to be a mainstay turned out to be not optimal.

The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Cuaca Ekstrem dan Kondisi Ekonomi Jadi Tantangan

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO (TOK)

Foreign tourists (wisman) visited Fatahillah Park, which is one of the tourist destinations in Jakarta, on Monday (25/9/2023).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS  —  The United Nations World Tourism Organization or UNWTO stated, along with the recovery in the number of tourists traveling internationally, the tourism industry must adapt to extreme weather and challenging economic conditions. Industry players must address this challenge by building a more inclusive, sustainable and resilient sector.

The September 2023 UNWTO World Tourism Barometer report stated that, January-July 2023, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide reached 84 percent of the level before the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 700 million tourists traveled internationally between January and July 2023, 43 percent more than in the same month in 2022. July was the busiest month as 145 million international tourists were recorded or around 20 percent of the seven-month total.

International tourism is still on track to reach 80-95 percent of pre-pandemic levels by 2023. The prospects for September-December 2023 show sustained recovery, according to the latest UNWTO Confidence Index. However, the pace of recovery is more moderate after the peak travel season in June-August 2023. These results are driven by high demand and increased air connectivity, especially in Asia and the Pacific.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, in his report, stated that along with the recovery of the sector, the tourism industry also needs to adapt to the extreme weather conditions that have occurred in the last few months. The challenging economic environment continues to be a significant factor in the international tourism recovery in 2023. Inflation and rising oil prices have caused transportation and accommodation costs to increase. This can burden expenditure patterns for the remainder of the year as tourists increasingly seek value for money, travel closer to home, and take shorter trips.

"Therefore, the tourism industry needs to be developed into a more inclusive, sustainable, resilient sector that ensures recovery takes place," he said.

Adyatama, an expert in tourism and creative economy, attended the weekly press conference of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf/Baparekraf) on Monday (25/9/2023) in Jakarta. Nia Niscaya, the main expert at Kemenparekraf/Baparekraf, stated that recent data from the main airport showed that in the past two months (August and September 2023), foreign tourist visits have each reached 1 million visits. The total number of foreign tourist visits from January to July 2023 has reached approximately 6.3 million visits.

The five main countries of origin for foreign tourists visiting Indonesia from January to July 2023 were Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, China, and Timor Leste. Despite high hopes for China as a key player in the national tourism market, the visits of Chinese tourists have yet to reach their full potential. This is due, in part, to the still high cost of air travel to Indonesia and the government's focus on promoting domestic tourism.

"We are optimistic that the target of 8.5 million foreign tourist visits by the end of 2023 can be achieved. The available flight seat capacity is about 70-80 percent compared to before the pandemic. We hope that by 2024, the flight seat capacity will be full and foreign tourist visits will increase," he said.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy/Creative Economy Agency, in partnership with the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency, is currently discussing the target number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia in 2024. However, competition will be intense as all countries are expected to recover at the same time.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO (TOK)

Foreign tourists (wisman) visited the Kota Tua area, which is one of the tourist destinations in Jakarta, on Sunday (15/1/2023).

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Lecturer of Tourism Studies Program at the Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University, Janianton Damanik, believes that the trend of increasing foreign tourist visits in the first semester of 2023 has been good. However, the holiday season has not brought an increase in foreign tourist visits to meet expectations of 10-12 percent. Instead, the increase in foreign tourist visits is only less than 6 percent.

“This means that Indonesia may only attract foreign tourists from neighboring countries. There may also be factors from the perspective of international tourists themselves who now tend to choose the closest destination,” he said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association Haryadi B Sukamdani, separately, is of the opinion that to achieve the target of foreign tourist visits that has been set, tourism industry players together with the government must aggressively socialize all event agendas to prospective foreign tourists. Airline ticket price promotions need to be made more competitive and this must be accompanied by increasing the number of international flights.

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