Indonesia targets wealthy domestic travelers to raise spending per trip
Indonesia's Tourism Ministry is courting affluent residents to spend more on vacations at home, using a luxury travel business forum in Surabaya to connect premium tourism operators with potential buyers and travel intermediaries.
Turning overseas leisure spending toward home
The ministry wants higher spending on each domestic trip, rather than focusing only on the number of journeys taken, Deputy for Marketing Ni Made Ayu Marthini said in an official statement confirmed on November 7.
"We want to shift a portion of outbound leisure spending from the affluent market toward domestic tourism," Marthini said. She described comfort and exclusive experiences as priorities for these travelers and said Indonesia's world-class destinations need to be offered as high-quality, exclusive products.
The ministry put that approach into practice at the Nusantara Luxury Exchange: Premium Business Matching, held October 28, 2026, in Surabaya, East Java. Twelve providers presented marine, wellness, and gastronomy offerings, with participants including luxury resorts, pinisi boat operators, and premium dining businesses. Their products emphasized privacy, cultural authenticity, and exclusivity.
On the buyer and intermediary side, the forum drew travel agencies, luxury concierge services, priority banking firms, and corporate travel planners. Its business-to-business tabletop session was intended to produce rate offers, direct bookings, and lasting partnerships that would benefit Indonesia's tourism industry; the ministry did not present those outcomes as completed transactions.
"We are optimistic that this business matching forum will not only generate concrete transactions and long-term partnerships, but also reinforce the perception that world-class travel experiences can be fully enjoyed right here at home," Marthini said.
The Surabaya meeting followed the ministry's Luxury Business Networking event on August 18, 2026. ANTARA News Jawa Timur reported that the earlier forum linked 11 tourism businesses with at least 25 prospective buyers and featured packages costing more than Rp 15 million, or about $800, per person.
A large market for travel spending
The ministry's effort draws on a substantial overseas travel market. Statistics Indonesia, known as BPS, recorded 9.16 million outbound trips by Indonesian tourists in 2023. Spending averaged $1,875 per trip, and leisure accounted for more than half of the journeys.
For 2025, BPS figures reported by Databoks (Katadata) put Indonesian residents' outbound tourism spending at IDR 306.56 trillion, an increase of 12.68 percent from the previous year. Accommodation was the largest spending category, representing 25.37 percent of the total.
Domestic travel volumes have also grown. Marthini cited 1.20 billion domestic tourism trips in 2025, up 17.53 percent from 2024. In the first six months of 2026, the count reached 630.41 million, a 2.71 percent increase over the corresponding period in 2025.
Marthini said luxury tourism could increase the sector's contribution to local economies while supporting #DiIndonesiaAja, the national campaign encouraging people to vacation within Indonesia.
Luxury demand and tourism policy
Other industry figures point to growth in Indonesia's luxury market. According to Travel Daily Media, data presented at the Indonesia Tourism Xchange 2026 showed that the country's ultra-high-net-worth population grew 5.5 percent between 2023 and 2025. Cumulative growth was projected to reach 32 percent by 2028.
At the same event in May 2026, STR, part of CoStar Group, presented hotel data covering the 12 months through March 2026. Luxury hotel occupancy had returned fully to pre-pandemic levels and outpaced every other hotel class by 5.5 percentage points. Nationwide hotel rates across all classes had risen 42 percent since 2019, while luxury hotels had led growth in average daily rates since 2023, Travel Daily Media reported.
The focus on higher-spending visitors also appears in national policy. The OECD's Tourism Trends and Policies 2026 report says Indonesia is implementing a Quality Tourism Development Strategy targeting high-spending tourists, including those interested in gastronomy, marine tourism, and wellness. It puts the national tourism budget at almost IDR 1.9 trillion in 2026, compared with IDR 1.5 trillion in 2025.