INCREASING INDONESIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH

BY TOURISM
By: Milla Safira Rachmana
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Indonesia is a big country that outstretches from Sabang until Merauke. This
country has a lot of the wealth either it has been well-known or it is still hidden. Its
culture and amazing nature have made Indonesia as the main attraction for the foreign
and domestic tourists to visit and explore Indonesia. Based on
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/indonesia/tourist-arrivals (2017), it is stated that
tourist arrivals in Indonesia increased by 29.04 year-on-year to 900,793 persons in
January of 2017, compared to 698,057 in the same month a year earlier. Bali was the
main destination (452,660), followed by Jakarta (189,242) and Batam (129,728). From
the data above, it proves that Indonesia has a potential in the tourism sector. This sector
can be relied on because tourism has a good prospect in the future if it's well managed
and it will bring benefits to Indonesia economy.

World Bank have researched that tourism sector is the easiest contributor to the
foreign exchange and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country. They record the
investment in tourism is US$ 1 million can push 170% the amount of the GDP. This is
the main factor to increase the economic growth because economic growth of a country
is measured by its GDP rate. So, if tourism sector gives good impacts for the GDP
increase of a country, its economic growth also will increase.

In line with the Law No. 10 of 2009 on Tourism which states that the
Implementation of Tourism is aimed at increasing national income in order to improve
the welfare and prosperity of the people, expanding and declaring business opportunities
and employment, promoting regional development, introducing and utilizing objects
and tourist attraction in Indonesia and foster the love of the homeland and strengthen
friendship among nations, it’s known that tourism is one of sector that must be paid
attention by government for supporting the economic growth increase be sides the
commodity sector and the others.
 Recently, the Indonesian government has pushed the tourism sector, especially
about rural tourism as the alternative way to increase the economy of this country. The
government push Indonesia's tourism to become more attractive in the result Indonesia's
tourist destination become a magnet for the foreign tourists to visit it. It is because
tourism as the national primary sector becomes one of biggest and the most rapid
economy sectors. Moreover, it will be the core of national economy in the future, so the
government don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Based on https://ekbis.sindonews.com, the tourism sector is projected to

contribute gross domestic product of 15%, Rp 280 trillion for foreign exchange, 20
million foreign tourist visits, 275 million domestic tourists travel and absorb 13 million
workers by 2019. Furthermore, the tourism sector can have a central centre of economic
growth which is more scattered throughout the country. It shows that government have
conviction about the tourism sector potential will increase along with the increasing the
amount of the tourists.

The tourism sector can increase the economic growth in some ways. First,
tourism can take part to contribute to the increase the revenue by taxes and retributions
which come from business activities that occur in the tourist destination such as from
hotels, restaurants, transportation and tour guide, parking, ticketing, and many more.
Beside that, from those business activities, tourism also will require many people to
involve, automatically there will be worker absorption, so, it will reduce the number of
unemployment. Data from tourism ministry reported that increasing the number of
labors in the tourism sector in 2015 is 18% (Biro Perencanaan dan Keuangan Sekretariat
Kementrian Pariwisata, 2016). Parts of the local people also can run business although it
is a small business such as just selling snacks or beverages on the spot or offering some
services such as umbrella rent, massage, or photographing, and so on, it will add the
people revenues. The output of the tourism sector will cause the local economy to
wriggle and become a stimulus to invest and cause the financial sector to grow as the
growth of other economic sectors. Experience in some countries that the arrival of
tourists to a tourist destination also led to the growth of foreign exchange business to
provide services and convenience for tourists during their trip. There will be many
investors that invest their capital in this country. Tourism sector opens the opportunity
for the investor because in this sector it can be developed many kinds of facilities that
supporting the tourist destination for example hotel, restaurant, or mall. They also build
new tourist destinations such as water park or amusement park. By those activities, it
can increase the number of investment. Not only for the investor but also small-medium
enterprises will be actuated by the tourism industry presence such as culinary, souvenir,
transportation, and so on.

The government together with all components of the nation must really focus on
various ways to boost tourism development comprehensively, not just reactive and
momentary policies. Regardless of the plan and all efforts that have been undertaken by
the government and related institutions, all targets that have been established can not but
must involve more private parties. The government should not struggle alone because
the tourism sector is a sector that involves many stakeholders with the target number is
also not small. Therefore, private investment in tourism is a driving machine that should
be strategically coupled also by the government.

It can be concluded that tourism sector optimization can promote and prosper the
tourist area, especially so that it can have a positive impact on the country. With
appropriate government measures and policies, the tourism sector contributes to the fifth
largest foreign exchange with oil, gas, coal and palm oil. The growth trend of
Indonesian tourism continues to increase every year. In addition, the tourism sector can
open up many jobs so that it can reduce the unemployment rate which of course has a
good impact on the welfare of the community. This sector provides opportunities for
small entrepreneurs to large entrepreneurs because it absorbs from business sharing. So,
regions and central government are entitled to levy that is included in the APBD and
APBN by all those business activities that can be done. The government must develop
continuously the tourist destinations by improving and advancing the facilities and
infrastructures which have existed and adding the facilities and infrastructures that
needed. The government also must be able to take the opportunity and make the
strategies to attract tourists to visit. Furthermore, promoting tourist destinations is an
important element in increasing the number of tourists. The wider the promotion range
of a tourist destination, the more people will know about it, and the more people who
want to visit it. If the tourist arrival increases, the revenue will increase, therefore the
economy also will improve. In note, all of the involved parties must coordinate each
other to create attractive tourist destination. Thus, tourism sector will bring the positive
influences for the economy in this state by increasing the economic growth.