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Govt to take another chance at tourism recovery this year
The government sought to support travel and hospitality businesses with more international flights last year, but the sector has yet to see a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. There’s hope among tourist industry stakeholders that 2025 will finally bring a rebound.
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Packed performance: Local and foreign tourists fill an open-air amphitheater near the cliffs of Uluwatu, Bali, on April 11, to witness the Kecak dance, a popular tourist attraction that pulls in thousands of people every day. (Antara/Fikri Yusuf)
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he government sought to support travel and hospitality businesses with more international flights last year, but the sector has yet to see a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. There’s hope among tourist industry stakeholders that 2025 will finally bring a rebound.
In August, the government announced that several airlines had opened direct routes to Indonesia, including Emirates from the United Arab Emirates, which had also increased its passenger capacity for flights to Indonesia.
“This also creates an opportunity to bring in foreign tourists from many countries, because Emirates serves more than 150 destinations,” according to a press release from what was then called the tourism and creative economy ministry.
The ministry noted that South Korea’s Jeju Air, Batik Air Malaysia, China Southern Airlines and Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines had also added new routes to Indonesia.
Other airlines followed in September, namely Singapore’s Scoot and Malaysia’s Air Asia.
Earlier in the year, Garuda Indonesia had opened more direct routes to and from Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport and Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, as well as increasing the frequency of domestic routes.
Irfan Setiaputra, then the flag carrier’s CEO, said Garuda’s plans for fleet expansion and more direct flights reflected “optimism about national tourism growth”, adding that the government targeted a 68 percent rise in foreign tourist arrivals for 2024, along with a full recovery of the overall tourist industry.
