A report by the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) states that Indonesia's domestic tourism sector showed consistent recovery in 2022 after being hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BPS explains that the number of domestic tourist trips in 2022 reached 734.86 million. This figure grew by 19.82% compared to the previous year.
"The number of domestic tourists in 2022 has surpassed the number of trips before the Covid-19 pandemic, with a difference of 12.70 million trips, or 1.76% higher than in 2019," wrote the BPS in its report.
Looking at the monthly trend, the BPS notes that the travel pattern in 2022 changed compared to the pre-Covid-19 period.
Generally, an increase in domestic tourism trips occurs at the end of each year, or during months coinciding with Eid al-Fitr.
However, in 2022, the highest number of domestic tourist trips occurred in March, reaching 80.23 million trips. This contributed 10.92% to the total domestic tourist trips in 2022.
The BPS states that domestic tourism trips in May 2022 were also quite high compared to other months.
The Eid al-Fitr holiday in May 2022 boosted the number of domestic tourist trips to 78.83 million, contributing 10.73% to the total domestic tourist trips in 2022.
"The number of domestic tourist trips in May also recorded the highest growth throughout 2022, with a growth of 60.15% compared to the previous month (month-to-month)," said the BPS.
The end-of-year celebrations in 2022, according to the BPS, also contributed to an increase in the number of domestic tourist trips to 65.96 million. This is equivalent to 8.98% of the total domestic tourist trips throughout 2022.
The achievement in December 2022 experienced growth of 22.47% compared to November 2022 (month-to-month).
However, this figure did not surpass the number of domestic tourist trips during the end-of-year period before the Covid-19 pandemic, which reached 69.83 million trips in December 2019.