Indonesia Conference Directory

The role of the national tourism sector is increasingly important in line with developments and contributions given the tourism sector through the acceptance of foreign exchange, regional revenue, the development of the region, as well as in the absorption of investment and labor as well as business development in various parts of the region in Indonesia. The tourism sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018 has reached 6.0%, or IDR 890.43 trillion (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2019). While foreign exchange from tourism in 2018 reached IDR 220.93 billion and contributed to employment for 12,966 million, or approximately 10.3% of the total workforce in Indonesia. The impact of tourism sector development in fact not only in the form of foreign exchange due to increasing number of foreign tourists who come and absorb labor in sectors related to the tourism development. Studies by Chaisumpunsakul and Pholphirul (2017) showed a positive correlation between degrees of economic openness to the demand of foreign tourists in Thailand. Moreover, Thailand tend to experience a high level of trade with the countries of origin of tourists coming. Therefore, tourism is becoming an own international trade promotion path and vice versa merchandise trade flows can encourage foreign tourist arrivals. This shows the significance of the relationship that supports business opportunities due to the complementary relationship between the two (Santana Gallego, Ledesma Rodriguez, & amp; Perez Rodriguez, 2011). However, focus on those two relationship is still gets little attention, especially in the case of Indonesia. Hence the purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of tourism on the international trade in Indonesia, especially for the category of cultural products. Tourism experienced a significant growth from year to year, supported by a rich cultural heritage so as to facilitate an increase in creative industries such as fashion, culinary, arts, crafts, and entertainment. This is because the creative industry is predicted to become a new economic power in the coming years.