Tourism Benefits from Rupiah Correction
18 December 2014 02:18 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The tourism sector is expected to reap benefits from the rupiah depreciation against the US dollar. Asnawi Bahar, chairman of Indonesian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Asita), estimated that the transaction value of foreign tourists by the end of this year will increase to US$500 million.
Asnawi said the estimate was obtained by calculating the number of expected tourist arrivals at the end of 2014 of approximately 1.7 million people. The target is 10 percent higher than last year's visit of 1.5 million people.
In addition, Asnawi said, the rupiah correction will boost local tourism by 20 percent as the US dollar's currently high value would lower the number of outbound travels by about 20 percent. Indonesians, he said, would opt to visit domestic tourist destinations.
ROBBY IRFANY | SUARDI GATTANG (PINRANG)