Indonesia's Hospitality Growth Driven by Easing of Restrictions

Quarantine was never the answer for travel to kickstart and Indonesia clearly understands that now — and that is emboldening hotel chains like Marriott, Banyan Tree and Swiss-Belhotel, all set with new properties scheduled to open.

After a series of flip-flops around confounding arrival rules, the archipelago dropped all quarantine requirements last month.

What’s more, the Indonesian government Tuesday dropped on-arrival tests and declared that foreigners from nine ASEAN countries would be able to enter the country without a visa, while special visa on arrival would be granted to foreigners from 43 countries, including U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, UAE and India.

From January to December 2021, the number of international visitor arrivals was 1.56 million, a decrease of 61 percent over the same period in 2020.

Foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia jumped to 185,000 in February 2022, boosted by further easing of restrictions. The number of arrivals by air jumped 97 percent. From January to February 2022, the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia reached 336,000.

The room occupancy rate for star hotels have started to show an increase in early 2022 even though it is yet to recover to 2019 levels. 

With tourist