Southeast Asia's largest economy beats neighbors on tourism ranking thanks to AI use

By Hoang Vu August 11, 2024 | 11:10 pm PT

Passengers arrive at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, Sept. 2, 2022. Photo by Reuters

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, has attributed the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the recent substantial improvement on a global tourism competitiveness ranking.

Indonesia ranked 22nd in this year's Travel and Tourism Development Index, rising 10 places from 2022, putting it ahead of neighbors like Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, according to the biennial ranking released by the World Economic Forum.

"AI has succeeded in helping us to achieve this jump," Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno said at an event in Jakarta last week as quoted by Antara News Agency.

AI assesses that the quality of tourists is more important than quantity, Uno said, adding the quality of tourists in Indonesia is reflected by the length of their stay at a destination and how much they spend.

Thanks to AI, Indonesia has launched more qualified and sustainable tourism services, he said.

Indonesia welcomed 6.4 million foreign tourists from January to June, marking a 21% increase compared to the same period last year.

This year it targets 17 million foreigners in total.