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Ministry defends recovery efforts for tourist industry
While conceding that visitor numbers had not returned to pre-pandemic levels, the tourism ministry highlighted that it had surpassed this year's minimum target with 11.43 million arrivals until Oct. 1 and expressed optimism of reaching the maximum target of 14.3 million visitors by the year-end.
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A crowd of domestic and foreign tourists packs a cliff-top amphitheater on April 11, 2024 in Uluwati, Bali, to watch the highly popular Kecak dance. (Antara/Fikri Yusuf)
T
he government has defended its efforts to recover the tourist industry from the impacts of COVID-19, even as the number of foreign visitors remains well below pre-pandemic levels from five years ago.
The number of foreign tourist arrivals this year had reached 11.43 million as of Oct. 1, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, pointing out that this already met full-year target of between 10.41 million and 14.3 million.
The ministry acknowledged, however, that even the upper limit of the targeted range was far below the 16.1 million arrivals recorded in 2019.
“Tourism has not yet recovered to the pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019," I Gusti Ayu Dewi Hendriyani, the ministry’s communications head, said in a statement sent to the Post on Thursday.
The ministry expressed optimism about reaching the 14.3 million maximum target for this year, saying that a survey it had conducted among industry experts showed the majority of respondents expected to see a rebound to pre-pandemic levels in 2025.
“To reach the target numbers for foreign tourist arrivals and domestic travelers, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry plans to conduct a number of programs or activities from October through December 2024,” the statement said.
Key initiatives include participating in an international tourism exhibition in London and a major travel fair in Taipei that the ministry was organizing in collaboration with the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta.
