Indonesia’s Tourism Industry Holds Out Hope for Rebound in Final Stretch of 2020

KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s tourism industry has been severely battered by the coronavirus pandemic and the government is cautiously optimistic about the year-end holiday.

For Indonesia, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its tourism industry has been quite severe as the number of foreign travelers visiting the country tanked between January-September 2020.

“Until September, we received nearly 3.5 million foreign travelers, but last year, we had 16.1 million international tourists visiting Indonesia during the same period,” said Wawan Rusiawan, Director of Strategic Studies at Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

Read also: Bumpy Road to Restoring Indonesia’s Tourism Sector during Pandemic

Based on Wawan’s data, the number of foreigners entering the country since January decreased by 7.26 percent or totaling 1.27 million while February saw an even greater drop having received only 885,100 foreigners.

Despite the obstacles facing Indonesia’s tourism industry during the Covid-19 crisis, Wawan remains hopeful that the fourth quarter of 2020 will bring more positive news.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has also calculated the number of travelers expected to visit Indonesia by the end of this year.

The ministry divided the calculation based on two categories: foreigners and domestic tourists.

Read also: Foreign Visitors Must Wait Longer before They Can Visit Bali Again

Foreign tourists:

Pessimistic: 3,705,300 people
Moderate: 4,671,900 people
Optimistic: 6,121,800 people

Domestic tourists:

Pessimistic: 120,093,241 trips
Moderate: 129,856,946 trips
Optimistic: 139,620,651 trips

For the fourth quarter of 2020, Wawan hopes that the Domestic Tourists category will reach a moderate level because as of September, there have only been 3.5 million visits conducted.

(Writer: Nabilla Ramadhian | Editor: Kahfi Dirga Cahya)

Source: https://travel.kompas.com/read/2020/11/24/192600527/jelang-akhir-tahun-2020-ini-estimasi-jumlah-wisatawan-di-indonesia