Indonesia sees tourism surge as visitors stay keen on Bali

Indonesia recorded a near-20% increase in the number of tourists last year, with almost 14 million visiting the vast archipelago.

The government, which has been trying to persuade travellers to look beyond Bali, by far its most popular island for foreign guests, welcomed the uptick as “a significant increase after the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The latest official data suggest that Bali remains the first stop for many. Around 6.3 million of the country’s 2024 arrivals touched down at the island’s airport, more than twice as many as entered via Jakarta, by far the biggest city.

The number of arrivals to Bali last year was about the same as in 2019, when Indonesia reported a record 16.1 million foreign tourists.

In the years either side of the Covid travel restrictions, the Indonesian government has been busy promoting alternatives such as Raja Ampat, known for its strikingly turquoise waters, and Komodo, home to the eponymous and fearsome lizard.

Meanwhile airlines have been adding flights to destinations such as Manado, close to diving spots off Sulawesi in the country’s east.

On Java, a densely-populated Muslim-majority island, there is Borobudur, the world’s biggest Buddhist temple. Sumatra is home to Toba, which at 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometers wide is the world’s biggest volcanic lake. It fills the caldera of the Toba supervolcano, the eruption of which tens of thousands of years ago left a metre-thick layer of ash across much of India and likely caused several years of continuous worldwide winter.

From west to east, Indonesia’s thousands of islands stretch wider than Canada, meaning an array of options for travellers. But to island-hop takes time if done by boat, and can end up being pricey if done by air, with many routes requiring an out-of-the-way connection through Jakarta or Bali.