Indonesia’s Booming Tourism Industry

Indonesia’s tourism industry is booming. In 2017, the country welcomed over 14 million overseas visitors, an increase of more than 2 million from the previous year. This rapid increase in visitors, and the billions of dollars in foreign currency flowing with them, seems likely to continue. This is not mere happenstance, but rather the result of a coordinated and strategic government effort to drive growth in the industry. Ministry of Tourism set a goal of 20 million foreign visitors by 2019. At the time, with numbers hovering around 9 million, this appeared to be an optimistic target but the most recent data suggests they are on pace to achieve it or come very close. With the election of Jokowi, the government set clear benchmarks for what it wanted to accomplish in the tourism sector, then designed and implemented a multipronged effort to achieve those goals. These efforts have been helped by a weakening rupiah, which increases Indonesia’s allure as an affordable tourist destination. This effort resulted in the efforts to restructure the Ministry of Tourism.