Indonesian Shoppers vs Foreign Tourists: Retailers Reveal Surprising Spending Patterns
The shopping habits of Indonesians when travelling abroad have become a concern for retail businesses. Indonesians are seen as spending a lot of money shopping overseas, while foreign tourists coming to Indonesia have not made shopping a major part of their travel activities.
Secretary General of the Indonesian Shopping Centre Retailers and Tenants Association (Hippindo) Haryanto Pratantara said this situation shows Indonesia still has homework to do in making shopping one of its tourism attractions.
“The second factor in Indonesia’s economic growth is the tourism sector. The key to tourism always involves three main things: the tourist attractions, the cuisine, and shopping. Indonesia has the first two — good tourist attractions and varied, very tasty cuisine. But unfortunately tourists rarely come to Indonesia to shop,” Haryanto said at the Indonesia Retail Summit and Expo at Swissotel PIK Avenue, Jakarta, on Wednesday (26/8/2026).
According to Haryanto, Indonesia is actually starting to become competitive in terms of price. However, the completeness and variety of goods remain a consideration for tourists when deciding where to shop.
“Only recently has shopping in Indonesia become busy, because of one main reason that we have actually been voicing to the government — namely that shopping in Indonesia is now cheaper. Unfortunately, this is because the Indonesian rupiah exchange rate is relatively weak,” he said.
“But it shows that Indonesia’s prices can compete, at least with neighbouring countries. If the number of goods is also varied and always up to date with new arrivals, Indonesia should be able to attract more tourists because the three main elements of tourism are fulfilled: tourist attractions, cuisine, and shopping,” he continued.
On the other hand, this situation is the opposite of the behaviour of Indonesians when travelling abroad. Haryanto said Indonesians actually shop a lot, including buying global brand products that are actually already available in the domestic market.
“Moreover, when we see Indonesians going abroad, their shopping is also crazy. And unfortunately they mostly buy global brands that are actually already available in Indonesia. But why do they shop abroad and not in Indonesia? Because of the completeness of goods, price, and variety,” Haryanto said.
For this reason, Hippindo is encouraging the government to strengthen the retail ecosystem so that Indonesia is not only a tourist destination, but also a place where tourists spend their money.
Hippindo Chairman Budihardjo Iduansjah said one of the steps being pushed is to provide ease for branded foreign products that have already contributed to Indonesia to enter and be sold in the domestic market.
“We have brands that are no less good, but we also hope for support for foreign brands that have contributed to Indonesia by opening stores, creating jobs, and paying taxes, so they can be given ease. Hippindo’s position will ensure harmonisation between local and global brands together, such as ease of imports and ease for branded foreign products to be sold in Indonesia so as to attract tourists, and the Belanja di Indonesia Aja (BINA) programme can run,” Budihardjo said.