Jakarta. The government expects to receive 7.4 million international arrivals for the year to produce around $6 billion in foreign exchange earnings, following a spike in the number of foreign tourists last year.

The Indonesian tourism industry is set to run at full pace this year after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions last month.

Between January and October of last year, foreign exchange earnings from tourism stood at $4.26 billion from a mere $500 million a year earlier, according to government data.

"The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has doubled the target [of foreign arrivals] to 7.4 million for this year," Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said during a seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Last year's target was 3.6 million international arrivals but as of November of 2022, the country has received around 4.6 million visits.

Sandiaga said a lot more needs to be done to boost the number of foreign tourists because 45 million people in Indonesia depend on the industry to make a living.

Major markets for the Indonesian tourism industry include Australia, China, India, Singapore, and Malaysia, he added. 

The number of domestic tourists is set to double to 1.4 billion compared to last year to produce Rp 90.7 trillion in state earnings, Sandiaga said.

Indonesia has not fully recovered from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic with the number of domestic flights still at around 71 percent of the pre-pandemic levels, Sandiaga said.

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