Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
72
4.3 Indonesia
1. Type/Focus area for case study
Desk case study/Marketing MFT Products and Services
2. Reasoning behind focus area choice
Indonesia has a well-developed Muslim-friendly ecosystem and is able to accommodate both
Muslims and non-Muslims. The government has recently taken increased interest in
promoting Indonesia as a Muslim-friendly destination as evident by several recent initiatives
including allocating 10% of its tourism budget to Halal tourism, appointing a special
committee reporting to the Ministry of Tourism to promote Halal tourism, as well as being
active in trade shows and Fam trips focused on the Middle East.
3. Background
Table 5: Indonesia – Tourism Figures
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 CAGR
Total Inbound Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
9.4 10.66 12.09 13.71 15.55 17.64 20.00 13.41%
Total Inbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
9.8 11.11 12.60 14.29 16.21 18.39 20.85 13.41%
Total Outbound
Expenditure ($ Bil)
10.65 11.22 12.14 13.29 14.47 15.78 17.22 10.08%
Muslim Tourist
Arrivals (Mil)
1.05 1.19 1.35 1.53 1.74 1.97 2.23 13.41%
Source: UNWTO; DinarStandard synthesis and analysis; Government Statistics.
Indonesia’s Muslim tourist arrivals have been estimated to grow by the highest among case
study countries at 13.4 percent CAGR from 1.2 million arrivals in 2015 to 2.2 million arrivals
in 2020. The CAGR reflects total inbound tourist arrivals and total inbound expenditure,
which is estimated to grow from 10.7 million arrivals spending $11 billion in 2015 to nearly
20 million arrivals spending $21 billion in 2020.
Indonesia’s Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development
(MP3EI) includes tourism as one of its eight main programs. The Ministry of Tourism and
Creative Economy has designated three provinces in Indonesia as Halal tourist destinations:
Lombok, West Sumatra and Ache. The selection of these three destinations was based on
certain criteria involving 80 metrics/parameters which they set with the Tourism
Institute.185. Lombok won the world’s top Halal tourism destination award at the 2015 World
Halal Travel Summit as well as the world’s best Halal honeymoon destination; Ache is the
only province in Indonesia that follows Shariah law, but it does not have any Shariah certified
hotels; and West Sumatra is culturally known as a religious province.
185 From interview with Riyanto Sofyan, Chairman of PT Sofyan Hotels, March 2016