Tourism dynamics: essence and its main function

Chapter I. The role of tourism industry in the economy of Indonesia

1. 
   Tourism dynamics: essence and its main function.
   

This chapter will offer an overview of the methods and techniques currently used to evaluate different types of economic impacts of tourism. Assuming that the impacts of tourism tend be different along the historical evolution of tourism destination , It is important that the tourism industry of Indonesia enhances its contribution towards the country's gross domestic product (GDP) because it will trigger more foreign exchange earnings (as each foreign visitor spends between USD $1,100 and USD $1,200 per visit on average) while also providing employment opportunities to the Indonesian people (based on the latest data from Statistics Indonesia, the country's unemployment rate stood at 5.81 percent in February 2015)⁶. It is estimated that nearly nine percent of Indonesia's total national workforce is employed in the tourism sector. Economic growth: the rate of change of real GDP, 1961 - 2020: For that indicator, we provide data for Indonesia from 1961 to 2020. The average value for Indonesia during that period was 5.13 percent with a minimum of -13.13 percent in 1998 and a maximum of 10.92 percent in 1968. The latest value from 2020 is -2.07 percent. For comparison, the world average in 2020 based on 185 countries is -4.86 percent. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time⁷.
Currently, Indonesia's tourism sector accounts for approximately four percent of the total economy. By 2019, the Indonesian government wants to have doubled this figure to 8 percent of GDP, an ambitious target (possibly overly ambitious) which implies that within the next four years, the number of visitors needs to double to about 20 million. In order to achieve this target, the government will focus on improving Indonesia’s infrastructure (including ICT infrastructure), accessibility, health & hygiene as well as enhancing online promotional (marketing) campaigns abroad. The government also revised its visa-free access policy in 2015 (for further elaboration, see below) to attract more foreign tourists.
Below we present foreign visitor arrivals into Indonesia in recent years. Please note that Indonesia's Statistics Agency (BPS) adjusted the definition of foreign visitor arrival per January 2016. This explains the sharp increase in foreign visitor arrivals between 2016 and 2015.
Table.1 Foreign Tourist Arrivals in Indonesia, 2013-2016