Even with the constant bickering and clashes between the two countries, in the end, Malaysians would never say no if they were given the chance to travel to Indonesia. In conjunction with that, data has shown that Malaysians still top the charts as the most visited tourists to Indonesia since September 2024, according to the Department of Statistics (DOS).
As reported by the President of the Malaysian International Tourism Development Association (MITDA), Datuk Noor Zaleha Baharuddin, the currency value of the Malaysian Ringgit is higher than the Indonesian Rupiah. This change consequentially allows Malaysians to travel and shop in Indonesia for items or services provided at a lower price.
Furthermore, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs, Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, stated that the number of tourists from Malaysia has hiked up to 24.22% monthly, bringing it to 234,500 tourists for this month alone. This automatically resulted in Malaysia being the biggest contributor to the neighbouring country with 18.3% of the total tourists. As a whole, Indonesia welcomed over 1,279,258 foreign travellers in September 2024, a decline of 4.53% compared to the earlier month but still a positive growth of 19.53% compared to September last year.
“The number of tourists from Malaysia didn’t only increase by 24.22% monthly but also soared to a whopping amount of 54.04% yearly,” added Amalia during a monthly meeting of the Department of Statistics (DOS) last Friday. The rise of Malaysians who travel and shop in Indonesia will not only contribute a great amount to the country’s tourism sector but also to the economy and the business of the Indonesian locals as well.
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Sources: Vocket, Harian Metro, Bisnis.com
Tiana contributed to this article.
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