JAKARTA - Global tourism trends continue to shift. If previously tourism was synonymous with visiting popular destinations, now more and more tourists are looking for more personal, challenging, and close to nature experiences.
This shift opens up opportunities for Indonesia to strengthen its position as an adventure tourism destination.
Acting Deputy for Development of Event Organizers of the Ministry of Tourism, Hafiz Agung Rifai, assessed that Indonesia has strong capital to develop the sector.
According to him, the natural wealth owned by Indonesia allows tourists to enjoy various adventure activities in one country.
"Indonesia is one of the few countries that can offer a complete adventure experience through land, sea, and air activities," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, July 15.
With more than 17,000 islands and diverse landscapes, Indonesia has the potential to offer a variety of experience-based tourism options. From mountains, tropical forests, rivers, lakes, beaches to marine areas rich in biodiversity.
This potential is considered in line with global trends that show an increase in tourists' interest in experience-based tourism. In addition to adventure tourism, interest in fitness and sports tourism has also continued to grow in recent years.
According to Hafiz, various studies from international institutions, such as the UN Tourism and African Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA), show that experience-based tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism segments.
Seeing this development, the Ministry of Tourism continues to encourage the implementation of various outdoor activities as part of strengthening the experience-based tourism ecosystem. Throughout 2026, the ministry supports more than 30 activities, ranging from cross-country running, cycling races, automotive sports, horse racing, swimming in open waters to fishing competitions.
On the other hand, industry players see this trend as an opportunity to develop adventure tourism businesses in Indonesia. Managing Director of PT Industri Pameran Nusantara Ryan Adrian said the increasing public interest in outdoor activities was a momentum for the growth of this sector.
Meanwhile, the President Director of PT Debindomulti Adhiswati Vibiadhi Swasti Pradana assessed that collaboration between the government, business actors, and the community is an important factor to encourage innovation while expanding the promotion of adventure tourism in a sustainable manner.
Despite having great potential, the development of adventure tourism is also considered to be balanced with the improvement of safety aspects. Skygears Indonesia founder Harry Suliztiarto emphasized the importance of education and training for human resources involved in the sector.
"Let's put together the education and training system. Indonesia has many competent human resources. That is our dream to build an increasingly advanced Indonesian outdoor industry," said Harry.
With the natural wealth owned and the increasing interest in experience-based activities, adventure tourism is seen as a potential driver of the growth of the Indonesian tourism sector in the future. However, its development still requires infrastructure support, improvement of human resources, and the implementation of adequate safety standards.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
