A tourist village in Bali, Indonesia (Photo: Indonesia Travel) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has announced it’s likely that domestic tourists make fewer trips to local destinations this year than the government had targeted as the country’s smokeless industry does not recover as much as expected.
Deputy Minister Vinsensius Jemadu said that the government had initially targeted between 1.2 billion and 1.4 billion trips from domestic tourists this year, but after evaluating the figures, reaching the target would be “very difficult”.
Instead, the government hoped to record at least 1 billion trips by domestic tourists by year-end, he said, adding that they are seeking solutions to achieve the target of 1.2-1.4 billion domestic tourists in the next year.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the country recorded 626.09 million domestic tourists in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 12.81% over the same period last year. It also exceeded the number of domestic tourists in the whole year 2019 with 527.59 million.
Vinsensius said they all think that Indonesia’s tourism will return to normal this year, but geopolitical and world economic dynamics have impacted the development of its domestic tourism.
He added that the financial status of Indonesian people has not yet fully recovered.
Furthermore, aviation travel is still facing many challenges, with many flights and routes yet to resume to pre-pandemic levels. The prolonged decrease in flight frequency has made airfares "very expensive".
It is expected that Indonesia’s domestic aviation will fully recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2025 at the latest.
Meanwhile, in the first nine months of 2023, Indonesia welcomed about 8.5 million international visitors, exceeding the number of the whole year 2022 with 5.88 million arrivals. This year, Indonesia aims to attract at least 10 million foreign tourists./.
