Indonesia Ready to Attract 650,000 Malaysian Tourists Through Religious Tourism

TRIBUNBATAM.id - Indonesia is targeting 310,000 to 650,000 Malaysian tourist visits in 2023.

The promotion of religious tourism will also be intensified to target tourists from the neighboring country. 

One of them is through the development of the Jakarta Istiqlal Mosque as a favorite religious tourism destination in the country. 

In addition, in the near future, the tunnel connecting the Cathedral Church and the Istiqlal Mosque will also be inaugurated directly by President Joko Widodo, which will further add to the attractiveness of these two religious destinations. 

Meanwhile, Deputy for Strategic Policy of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Nia Niscaya said, the target for Malaysian tourist visits in 2023 refers to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) regarding overall foreign tourist arrivals in the period of January-November 2022. 

This data was then added to extrapolated data from the number of visits in December 2021. 

To note, the definition of extrapolation according to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI) is the expansion of data beyond the available data, but still follows the trend pattern of the available data.  

"Based on data on the overall visit of Malaysian foreign tourists from January to November 2022, and December 2022 using an extrapolation from December 2021, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has set a lower target of 310,000, and a target of 650,000 visits in 2023," said Nia Niscaya on the same occasion.

So, Nia said, the target of 310,000-650,000 Malaysian tourist visits was set to get a number of quality tourist visits, including in terms of length of stay and quality of shopping, not just sightseeing.