Sandiaga Uno: Foreign Tourist Visits in 2022 Exceeds Target of 3.6 Million

JAKARTADAILY.ID – The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia has surpassed the 2022 target of 3.6 million. According to Tempo, Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno predicted that the number will rise two folds.

“Statistics Indonesia (BPS) records that 3.92 foreign tourists visit Indonesia. So tourism and creative economy sector will remain the driver of the national economic growth,” said Sandiaga in a virtual press conference on Monday, December 26, 2022.

Sandiaga targeted that throughout 2023, the country could log 3.5 million to 7.4 million foreign tourist visits. From there, foreign exchange earnings were projected to reach $2-5.95 billion.

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In 2022, the forex earnings amounted to $4.26 billion, a ten-fold increase from last year’s realization. This achievement also exceeded the target of $1.7 or a three-fold hike.

The increase in forex earnings, Sandiaga explained, was attributable to the hike in foreign tourist visits in line with the economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sandiaga also revealed that there will be an increase in the growth of domestic tourists in 2022. The number of domestic tourists in 2022 was estimated to be 703 million.

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With the Christmas and New Year holidays, Sandiaga hoped the figure would reach 800 million or up by more than 15 percent from 2021.

“It’s predicted that tourism’s GDP contribution would increase by 50 percent from last year, and that reaches 3.6 percent,” he outlined.