Tourism Indonesia: Visitor Arrivals Bali Starting to Recover
The flow of tourists to Bali, Indonesia's top tourist destination, is gradually recovering after the eruption of Mount Agung (although the volcano is still showing activity). Therefore, Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya is optimistic that Bali will welcome at least seven million foreign tourists in full-year 2018.
Yahya said foreign visitor arrivals to Bali cannot fall below the targeted seven million next year. After all, this target is low compared with tourist arrivals in neighboring cities (or city states) such as Bangkok (Thailand) and Singapore. "Bangkok attracts about 18 million foreigners, so Bali - where there is much more to see and do - should actually be able to welcome more foreign tourists," Yahya said.
In full-year 2017 the Indonesian government targets Bali to attract more than six million foreign tourists. However, this target will not be achieved due to the Mount Agung eruption. Up to October, around five million foreign visitors visited Bali, thus at that moment the target was likely to be achieved. But unfortunately activity of Mount Agung interrupted many holidays to Bali in the last two months of 2017. Several nations in fact imposed travel warnings for Bali.
For example, China imposed a travel warning for Bali from 27 November 2017 to 4 January 2018, implying almost no Chinese tourists opt to visit Bali within that period. Considering China is a big source of foreign tourists to Bali, the travel ban was felt by Bali's tourism industry.
In order to make tourist numbers to Bali rebound and accelerate in the post Mount Agung eruption era, the Indonesian government plans to spend IDR 100 billion (approx. USD $7.4 million) on branding, advertising and hard selling (the latter refers to big discount offerings). The government targets both foreign and domestic tourists.
For Indonesia's tourism industry, Bali is still the key location. More than 50 percent of foreign visitor arrivals in Indonesia enter the country through Ngurah Rai International Airport on Bali.
But Indonesia should not be dependent on Bali. Therefore the government selected ten priority tourist destinations (see below) that all should become major centers of tourism in the future. However, these locations all require significant infrastructure development.
With the help of these priority tourist destinations, Indonesia aims to welcome at least 20 million foreign visitor arrivals by 2019. It may be a too ambitious target considering Indonesia will fail to welcome 15 million tourist arrivals in 2017 (however the Mount Agung eruption can be blamed for this). Up to October, a total of 11.6 million foreign visitor arrivals were counted so far this year.
10 Priority Tourist Destinations of the Indonesian Government:
| Destination | Tourists 2013 |
Tourist Target 2019 |
| Borobudur Central Java |
227,337 | 2,000,000 |
| Mandalika Lombok |
125,307 | 1,000,000 |
| Labuan Bajo Flores |
54,147 | 500,000 |
| Bromo-Tengger-Semeru East Java |
33,387 | 1,000,000 |
| Thousands Islands off the coast of Jakarta |
16,384 | 500,000 |
| Toba Lake North Sumatra |
10,680 | 1,000,000 |
| Wakatobi Sulawesi |
3,315 | 500,000 |
| Tanjung Lesu Banten |
1,739 | 1,000,000 |
| Morotai Halmahera, Maluku |
500 | 500,000 |
| Tanjung Kelayang Bangka Belitung |
451 | 500,000 |
Source: Investor Daily