The global financial crisis has not affected the Indonesia’s tourism very much particularly international tourist arrivals. This can be seen from the number of international tourists’ arrival in the period of January to April 2009 reached 1,893,155 people, or grew 1.53% (up 28,570 people) compared to the same period in 2008 was 1,864,585 people. Figure 1 also demonstrates the resilience of the tourism market in coping with various demand shock. In fact the level of direct international tourists’ arrival started increasing in 2007 and in 2008 was the highest reached during the Indonesia’s tourism history with the number of tourists’ arrival was 6,429,027 tourists.
The decreasing of number of tourist to Indonesia occurred in 1998 was caused by the turbulent times of Indonesian economic upheavals and political transition. The 9/11 incident in 2001, the first Bali bombing on October 12th, 2002, the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the invasion of Iraq by the United States caused the decline of tourists’ arrival in the year 2002, and the sharpest decline (11.25%) in international tourist arrivals in 2003 since records began. In 2004, Indonesia’s tourism had started to recover but the second round of terror attack in Jimbaran and Kuta October 1st, 2005, natural disaster (tsunamis and earthquakes) lead to dramatic drop of tourists’ arrival in 2005 and 2006.
Indonesia as a long haul destination still remains the positive number of tourist booking in 2009 according to Matthias Rotter, chief of Meier’s Weltreisen. In 2008, tourist arrivals to Indonesia increased by 16.77%. To some extent, Indonesia may have benefited from tourists switching holidays away from troubled Thailand, where anti-government protests closed the country’s main international airport during November 2008. Indonesia might still fare better than its competitors, due to its image as a ‘low-cost’ travel destination
The other fact is United States of America (USA) tourists is not the highest market of international tourists to Indonesia. The biggest number of tourists was ASEAN tourists for 45.23% and Asia Pacific visitors for 34.79% (Figure 3 and Appendix 2a). The number of USA tourists was only 220,202 tourists (2.82%) from total (Figure 4). This condition make some experts believes that tourism industry in Indonesia will be able to survive after the global financial crisis because USA residents that mostly affected by the financial crisis, are only small number of visitors, even though most country are affected by global financial crisis, the impact is not significant. Some experts also stated that the global financial crisis would only give psychology impact on countries, as long as it wasn’t economic crisis; the impact will not be significant.
From the promotion point of view, there is optimistic of the global financial crisis will not affect tourism industry in Indonesia because Indonesia had successfully run its tourism program in 2008 by holding a lot of events, such as Indonesia Tourism & Travel Fair (ITTF), ASEAN Tourism Investment Forum (ATIF), Asia Beach Games and World Film Festival in Bali, etc. Indonesia is also nominated in “New 7Wonders of Nature for 2008-2010 periods by its 3 destinations, those are National Park Komodo Island, Toba Lake, and Krakatau Island. The program promoting tourism Indonesia is continuing in 2009 with the theme Visit Indonesia Year 2009: MICE and Marine Tourism with the target of 8 million visitors.
Most of Indonesia’s major incoming markets recorded increased in 2007. Indonesia was able to attract more international visitors from Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Japan and ROC in 2007. Visa-on-arrival facilities and additional flight frequencies for China and India have provided a positive effect on international visitors from the respective countries. From Europe, the UK has been the most dynamic market most likely due to its dynamic economy and a strong currency.
In 2007, the Russian, one of the Indonesia’s top major markets, increased 55.14% compared to year 2006. From the Pacific area, the international visitors from Australia increased 38.53% in 2007 compared to the international visitors of 2006 (Figure 4). The following countries also showed improvements in foreign arrivals to Indonesia in 2007: People’s Republic of China (+56.53%), Malaysia (+15.76%), and France (+5.69%). Reflecting the global financial crisis at the moment, the following countries produced fewer travelers in 2007 than the same period in 2006: Italy (-17.54), Switzerland (-6.85), Taiwan (-3.72), Singapore (-3.52), Hongkong (-3.02), and Netherlands (-2.98).