Questioning Quality Tourism

Over the past few years, the term quality tourism has become increasingly popular in Indonesia. From the minister of tourism, the deputy minister of tourism, to local government officials, they all seem to enjoy talking about it. What is quality tourism? The definition can be long. In essence, quality means that the focus is no longer on quantity or the number of tourist visits, but on the quality of the tourist experience, environmental sustainability, economic benefits for local communities, and the preservation of culture. UN Tourism defines it as a process that meets consumers’ expectations of products and services at fair prices, while paying attention to safety, security, cleanliness, accessibility, and environmental sustainability. According to UN Tourism, this approach prioritises sustainability, benefits to communities, and visitor experience over mere visitor numbers. But, it seems that because visitor experience is more important than the number of visitors, the term ‘quality tourism’ is more often used to “hide” from the reality that we are unable to attract more international tourists. Even more interesting, because they refuse to define ‘quality tourists’ as ‘luxury’ tourists, but rather as those who value local culture, stay longer, spend money more healthily, calmly and responsibly, and have a positive impact on the destination. This means that the ‘quality’ referred to is that even if the number of foreign visitors is smaller, they are very happy, so they will stay longer and spend more. Let me illustrate. Suppose 100 foreign tourists visit Lake Toba; for Parapat they originally planned to stay three days. But because they enjoy the atmosphere there, they extend their stay to six days, spending three additional days in Samosir or Bukittinggi. The spending of these foreign tourists also doubles from Rp 20 million per person per visit to Rp 40 million per person per visit. Well, we would be pleased if that were the case. If theory holds that quality tourism drives a longer length of stay and greater spending by foreign tourists, those are its two key indicators. But what about the reality?