Potential Money Turnover During Christmas And New Year's Holidays Reaches IDR 91.3 Trillion

Rupiah (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) projects that the circulation of money during the 2024 Christmas and 2025 New Year holidays (Nataru 2024/2025) will reach IDR 91.3 trillion. This figure is predicted to increase by 3.43 percent compared to last year.

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Regional Autonomy Development Sarman Simanjorang said, in the midst of declining purchasing power, it did not reduce the enthusiasm of the community to travel back and forth with their families.

Sarman said that based on data from the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub), the number of travelers during the 2024/2025 Nataru holiday is estimated at 110.67 million people, an increase of 3.67 million from last year.

"On average, per family of 4 people, the number of travelers is 110.67 million, equivalent to 27,667,500 families. If the average per family we assume carries an average of Rp. 3.3 million per family, the potential for money circulation reaches Rp. 91.302 trillion," said Sarman in a written statement received by VOI, quoted Monday, December 23.

Sarman said the large number of travelers this year was caused by three factors. First, people have saved and planned to go home to celebrate Christmas with their families and travel at the end of the year.

Second, there is a joint holiday time on December 25-26, so that many workers take annual leave on December 23-24. Thus, the holiday time can reach 10 days. Third, there is a government policy that reduces flight rates by 10 percent and the tariffs for trains and ships do not increase during the 2024/2025 Nataru holiday.

"The amount (money circulation) is likely to approach IDR 100 trillion. We just took a very moderate number, up 10 percent from last year's 3 million per family," he said.

According to Sarman, the movement of people during the 2024/2025 Nataru holiday is estimated to reach 55.86 million between provinces and 54.81 million choose to stay in their respective provinces with the aim of going home, including East Java, Central Java, West Java, DI Yogyakarta, Greater Jakarta, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Lampung, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Bali, NTT, Maluku and Papua.

"The purpose of the trip is 45.28 percent or 50.12 million for the New Year holidays, 11.66 percent or 12.90 million for the Christmas holidays and 40.06 percent or 47.65 million for the Christmas and New Year holidays," he said.

He considered that the circulation of money would be evenly distributed in various homecoming and tourism destinations and could increase the productivity of various business sectors. Starting from air transportation, trains, buses, rentals, logistics transportation, shipping services, travel, grabs, sea transportation and ferry services.

Later, he said, the tourism sector and its supporters will also be the target of large money circulation, such as shopping centers, malls, wholesale, Christmas parcel services, cake shops, hotels, hotels, villas, apartments, restaurants, cafes, culinary centers, regional souvenir craftsmen, various MSME products, mini markets and micro traders spread across various tourist attractions.

"The industrial scale will certainly experience a significant increase in sales for Christmas and New Year's needs, especially fashion producers, food and beverages such as cakes, bread, snacks, meat, sausages and drinks such as sirop, soft drink and alcoholic beverages," said Sarman.

Furthermore, Sarman assessed, the circulation of money during the 2024/2025 Nataru holiday is very strategic in increasing household consumption and will be able to boost economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 above 5 percent.

"So, Indonesia's economic growth in 2024 can survive at 5 percent. Considering that economic growth in the third quarter of 2024 only reached 4.95 percent," he added.