Indonesia’s tourism industry set to grow

Indonesia is now poised to become a popular holiday destination for national and international tourists. The growing tourism sector is becoming economically significant. Against that backdrop, the third South East Asia Hotel Expansion Summit 2014 gathered key industry stakeholders and service providers from Indonesia’s travel and tourism sector to discuss the market outlook and potential business opportunities.

Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, was amongst the prestigious list of speakers at the 3rd Annual SEA Expansion Summit 2014 held in Jakarta, Indonesia. In his presentation, Bahar emphasized how the tourism sector boosts the economy. 2014 saw a record number of inbound tourist arrivals, at 8.6 million.

He shared that Indonesia’s travel and tourism sector is expected to grow further due to the implementation of a common ASEAN Visa, expected by the end of 2015.

However, the nation still struggles with challenges such as excessive competition in the aviation industry, which has seen smaller airlines closing down due to debt issues and a lack of infrastructure. This has curbed intra and inter island connectivity. Moreover, a general lack of English language proficiency amongst Indonesians tends to impede service levels in the foreign tourist sector.

Nonetheless, these problems are being tackled. The government plans to allocate USD140 billion for further transport infrastructure development. The government has also been taking steps to preserve Indonesia’s tropical rainforest. It introduced a logging moratorium in 2011 which is still in force. This will auger well for Indonesia’s high-potential eco-tourism sector.

Jeffrey Bahar’s presentation deck on “Overview and trends in Tourism sector” can be found here.

https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/indonesias-tourism-industry-set-to-grow/

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