INDONESIA’s Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Hatta Rajasa, has called upon the country’s regional tourism stakeholders to focus on drumming up ‘tourism fever’ in their respective precincts, as the country’s burgeoning middle class continues to develop a taste for travel.
Speaking during a keynote session at the inaugural Indonesia Tourism Conference in Jakarta, Rajasa said: “Our average income per capita has been growing, and has reached around US$3,500. The middle class is growing by between eight to nine million people a year. These are new potential tourists. The trend today is for couples and young people to travel and explore exciting places.”
He added: “It is no longer enough to have awareness on the importance of tourism, but to create ‘tourism fever’ to boost local economies and open up job opportunities.”
Rajasa also pointed out that tourism had been a resilient sector during the global economic crisis in 2008/2009.
“The economic crisis resulted in the contraction of world tourism by 30 per cent, but at that time international arrivals to Indonesia was up by 0.3 per cent. That is why the central government is giving so much attention to this sector,” he explained.
