Global travel trends are undergoing a significant shift. Tourists are no longer just looking for pure entertainment; instead, they are prioritizing personal, authentic, and healthy experiences. This phenomenon is strongly driven by the dominance of millennials and Gen Z, who prioritize an active lifestyle in all their travels.
Seeing this shift, the Ministry of Tourism (Kemenpar) is making sport tourism a primary focus of tourism industry development. According to UN Tourism data, this sector is projected to grow by an average of 17.5 percent annually until 2030, with global tourist spending estimated to contribute up to 10 percent.
As a strategic step, Kemenpar has established formal cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. This collaboration includes mapping out event potential, standardizing the organization of sports events, and developing infrastructure and support facilities that are tourist-friendly. The Karisma Event Nusantara (KEN) program is also optimized to promote national and international-scale sports agendas.
Despite the promising prospects, 2024 data shows that the contribution of sport tourism to foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia remains at 9.74 percent, lagging behind adventure and wellness tourism. Therefore, Kemenpar is integrating technologies like AI and IoT to create a more efficient and immersive travel ecosystem to attract wider tourist interest.
This development is expected to transform the face of Indonesian tourism towards higher quality. By combining natural and cultural attractions through sports events, the government aims to increase tourists' length of stay and spending value, supporting the future sustainability of the national tourism economy.
