{"id":132,"date":"2019-04-15T06:53:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T06:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bali.queenstandoor.com\/blog\/?p=132"},"modified":"2022-07-21T06:16:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T06:16:37","slug":"impact-of-upcoming-indonesian-elections-on-tourism-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bali.queenstandoor.com\/blog\/impact-of-upcoming-indonesian-elections-on-tourism-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of Upcoming Indonesian Elections on Tourism Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

17th April 2019 will be a monumental day for Indonesia. For it is the day when both presidential and legislative elections will take place simultaneously in the world’s 3rd Largest Democracy Indonesia . A population of over 193 million will be choosing from amongst 2,45,000 candidates for 20,000 seats. The voting will happen for both the upper and lower houses of parliament as well as the district and provincial legislatures. This is for sure to be a monumental election process.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scenario <\/b><\/p>\n

To put it simply, there are two main men pitted against each other for the presidential elections this year, as was the case for the previous term. President Joko Widodo (aka Jokowi) would be battling the presidential seat against Prabowo Subianto. Same was the scenarios 5 years ago, and evidently, Jokowi swept the votes back then. Jokowi focused his policies on infrastructure, tourism and more. His approval rate seems to be high still. Subianto did try to sway his supporters by pointing out Jokowi\u2019s failure in providing quality jobs and letting food prices get too high. This, however, failed to work. <\/span><\/p>\n

Subianto, on the other hand, has a background that puts him at a disadvantage. Being married to former dictator General Suharto\u2019s daughter, he is perceived as closely related to the traditional elite. This too was suspected to be a reason for his defeat in 2014, albeit, it was a very close defeat. So this indicates Subianto\u2019s popularity in Indonesia is still strong. His 2014 campaign was aimed at pro-poor policies of reducing unemployment and creating new farm jobs. <\/span><\/p>\n

How this will impact Tourism Industry<\/b><\/p>\n

Since 2015, Indonesia\u2019s tourism has been wildly expanding. This did not happen with the blink of an eye. From the very beginning, Jokowi\u2019s government was clear on wanting to expand tourism from a whopping <\/span>9 million visitors to 20 million by 2019<\/b> and that clearly happened. The government had developed a multi-pronged approach for it. Along with the extensive marketing of Government schemes the central bank allowed for the <\/span>weakening of currency Indonesian Rupiah which made it cheaper for incoming tourists thus boosting tourism industry.<\/b><\/p>\n

Jokowi\u2019s claim to fame may have been a result of strategic planning but there was a slight element of coincidence too. As soon as he was elected, the world witnessed a drop in commodity prices. This took a toll on Indonesia\u2019s export-heavy commodity driven (like Palm Oil, Rubber) economy so the president expertly maneuvered around the situation by focusing on the non-export sectors like tourism. The wheels were set in motion and <\/span>a 5-year plan in 2014 to 2019 <\/b>whose objectives were to<\/span><\/p>\n

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