In the event of a pleasant surprise in the form of significant growth in the number of foreign visitors, as seen in 2023, Sandiaga hopes to see foreign tourist arrivals in 2024 reach 16 million. “If we achieve 10-20 percent growth, we could reach over 16 million,” Sandiaga explained.

Nevertheless, Sandiaga’s primary focus remains on promoting quality and sustainable tourism for the benefit of the Indonesian people at large. “Our focus on quality and sustainable tourism is increasingly being appreciated,” he noted.

It’s worth noting that foreign tourist arrivals in the period of January to August 2023 already reached 7.44 million, surpassing the initial target of 7.4 million set at the beginning of the year. Mid-year, the government revised the target to 8.5 million, an increase of 1.1 million from the initial target.

Sandiaga emphasized that Indonesia still has four more months to achieve the 2023 foreign tourist arrival target. He expressed optimism that by the end of 2023, the 8.5 million target could be significantly exceeded, possibly surpassing it by 15-20 percent. “The target is between 10 to 11 million foreign tourist arrivals,” said Sandiaga.

He is optimistic due to the strong increase in foreign tourist arrivals and hopes that this growth will bring broad benefits to the Indonesian population. “I don’t want to jump the gun, but I am optimistic that the end-of-year target of 8.5 million will be significantly exceeded,” Sandiaga concluded.