Assessing the Dollar and Our Tourism

We can no longer hide behind the slogan of ‘quality tourism’ if the internal budget structure of ministries remains unbalanced and local-level infrastructure is left without direction.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The prolonged impact of the global energy crisis, caused by long-standing tensions in the Middle East, has now reached a tiring saturation point for financial markets. This condition has forced the US central bank to maintain high interest rates for an extended period, acting as a giant magnet that consistently pulls capital out of developing nations.

This continuous drying up of global liquidity has directly spread to Jakarta, forcing the rupiah exchange rate under heavy pressure, touching the psychological level of Rp1.800 per dollar. This structural monetary volatility is affecting the entire world, from the collapse of the Japanese Yen to the weakening of the Euro.

Amidst the storm known as the ‘Super Dollar’, a major anomaly has emerged in Indonesia’s tourism sector, which has failed to utilise the golden momentum of the high global dollar rate to optimally reap foreign exchange. According to macroeconomic theory, when the dollar rises sharply against domestic currencies, the cost of holidaying in Indonesia for foreign tourists becomes much cheaper. Market logic should record an explosion in spending and extended holiday periods from international tourists due to their increased purchasing power within the country.

However, the increasingly unstable market psychology presents the opposite reality at the grassroots level, where the decline in local purchasing power due to imported inflation is exacerbated by the declining quality of foreign tourist spending. This irony serves as a major warning signal, as the entire economic growth engine of the national tourism sector will automatically become locked in a deadly vortex of stagnation if we continue to fail in converting the strengthening dollar into real benefits for the state treasury.

Data from the Passenger Exit Survey released by the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS) clearly exposes this anomaly through statistics showing that average foreign tourist expenditure has continued to drop sharply from 2021 to 2025. It was recorded that in 2021, the average expenditure of international tourists was still at 3,097 US dollars, but then plummeted to 1,448 US dollars in 2022, and fell further to 1,391.85 US dollars in 2024.

According to the official third-quarter 2025 report published by BPS, the average expenditure of international tourists has declined again to the level of 1,297.31 US dollars, accompanied by a reduction in the average length of stay from 9.88 days to just 7.60 days. This official data sheet proves that the jargon of ‘quality tourism’, which has been heavily preached by policymakers from the era of Sandiaga Uno to Widiyanti Putri Wardhana, remains merely a narrative on paper.