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2023, should be a year full of optimism as the national economy recovers, which was hit by a pandemic since early 2020. With the sloping of the COVID-19 cases, recovery has started to occur since the beginning of last year and is expected to accelerate this year.
However, this optimism was dampened by projections and warnings from a number of international institutions regarding the increasing risk of a global recession in 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth rate forecast to 2.7% this year. The IMF, World Bank, ADB and OECD are also united in projecting Indonesia’s economic growth in 2023 in the range of 4.7% -5%. This figure is below the government’s target of 5.3%.
Even so, the Indonesian government still hopes that this year’s national economic growth will be on target. The good news is that Indonesia’s economic fundamentals are considered quite good and far from recession. In the midst of global uncertainty, Indonesia is also facing an election year. The political dynamics ahead of the presidential election in 2024 will begin to be felt this year.
The existence of a domestic political agenda towards elections certainly has the potential to make the temperature in the country heat up a little. Even so, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno in his presentation at the Indonesia Tourism Outlook (ITO) 2023 event entitled “Prospects for Tourism and Hospitality Industry Investment in the Political Year” at ARTOTEL Suites Mangkuluhur, Jakarta, Wednesday (01/18), 2023 believes that the tourism sector and the creative economy will continue to grow in a political year.
“This political year is actually good for tourism and the creative economy because there are definitely a lot of activities in hotels. There is nothing to worry about from a political year and investors don’t need to wait or delay (wait and see) to invest,” he said.
Precisely, he continued, in these political years is the best opportunity for investment, including in the tourism sector and its supporters such as hotels. So, if you ask how is the political year? Don’t worry bro! This political year is not a wait and see year but a year full of investment opportunities. So the tagline is 2023, don’t wait and see, but invest immediately to only travel in Indonesia.
“For information, this year the government is targeting an investment of IDR1,400 trillion. Efforts to attract investors in the tourism sector are continuing, especially investment in 5 super priority destinations and tourism Special Economic Zones (KEK). Meanwhile, as the pandemic subsides, visits by foreign tourists and domestic tourists are projected to increase this year,” Sandiaga remarked.
The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has also set multiple targets. For 2023 the target is in dikaldu or multiplied by two, from 3.6 million to 7.4 million (foreign tourists). For domestic tourists from 700 million to 1.4 billion (movement).
Sandiaga added that the achievements in 2022 have now exceeded the target set. Last year’s target of foreign tourists was 3.6 million and before the end of the year (January-November 2022) it turned out that the number had reached 4.8 million foreign tourists. Likewise domestic tourists who reached 703 million, above the target of 600 million.
According to him, this achievement was inseparable from good cooperation with all parties, including media partners. I also appreciate the Indonesia Tourism Outlook (ITO) event which is a routine agenda held by the Tourism and Creative Economy Journalists Forum (Forwaparekraf) every year since 2017.
This activity brings together practitioners, observers and policy makers, academics, communities and journalists to discuss the projections of the tourism sector and the creative economy. This year, the ITO 2023 event is collaborating with the Journalist Media Association (HAM) and ARTOTEL Group.
Indonesia Tourism Outlook 2023 presents a number of top speakers, including Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, President Director of InJourney, Dony Oskaria, Managing Partner of Indies Capital, Pandu Sjahrir, Partner of East Ventures, Erastus Radjimin, Founder and CEO of ARTOTEL Group, Avina Sugiarto, President of FATA/Astindo, Pauline Suharno and Chairman of Indonesia Tourism Forum (ITF), Sapta Nirwandar. [traveltext.id]
