The currencies derived from tourism continue to increase

JAKARTA – The tourism sector's contribution to the country's foreign exchange earnings has continued to grow, from $ 12.2 billion in 2015 to about $ 17 billion this year. This increase is in line with the Ministry of Tourism's best efforts to attract as many tourists as possible to the country.

"Indonesia is the 9th fastest growing tourism country in the world, the number 3 in Asia and the first country in ASEAN," said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, when 39, a four-year discussion on the performance of the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla government in Jakarta, Tuesday (10/23).

According to Arief, tourism growth in Indonesia from January to December 2017 reached 22% or more than the average growth of world tourism by 6.4% and ASEAN by 7%.

"Nevertheless, Vietnam has increased by 29%, due to deregulation, Malaysia has only increased by 4%, as well as Thailand," Menpar said.

President Jokowi said that he wanted from the outset tourism to become the biggest contributor in foreign currency and that he now ranks fourth, after the palm oil sector, the oil, gas and coal.

The foreign exchange contributions of the tourism sector have increased since 2015, rising from 12.2 billion US dollars to 13.6 billion US dollars in 2016 and 15 billion US dollars in 2017. This year, the goal is to collect 17 billion US dollars of foreign currency. Next year, $ 20 billion is expected.

The number of foreign tourist visits continues to increase, from 9.7 million in 2015 to 11.5 million in 2016 and 14 million in 2017. For August 2018, the number of foreign tourists has reached 10, 58 million on the target of 17 million foreign tourists.

Visits by Nusantara travelers also revealed some encouraging things. Since 2015, they were 255 million. In 2016, they increased again to reach 264 million, and in 2017, they again increased to 271 million. bud / E-9