Articles

Author: Dani Fauzi | Programme Officer

Reviewer: Wiwik Mahdayani

Graphic Design: Ganyos Paryama Sidik

Amid the fluctuations of the global economy, Indonesia's event industry is displaying an impressive wave of optimism. The latest data from EGO (2025) records that in 2024, the national event industry held an average of 8,777 events, generating a gross revenue of IDR 84.46 trillion or approximately USD 5.23 billion. More than 8.76 million workers were directly involved, representing 35.7% of the total creative economy workforce, assuming a total of 25 million people. The projections for 2025 are even more optimistic, with revenue expected to grow by 4.92% to IDR 88.62 trillion (USD 5.87 billion), and the average number of events rising to 9,209. Behind these figures lies a larger narrative: that Indonesia’s event industry is not merely recovering post-pandemic, but is preparing to accelerate toward the global stage, with market projections reaching USD 7.41 billion by 2032.

With the rapid growth of the national event industry, the role of regional events becomes crucial as both drivers of grassroots creative economies and guardians of local cultural wealth. These activities serve not only as a means of preserving tradition, but also create direct economic impacts by increasing tourist visits, stimulating micro-business turnover, and generating local employment. As part of its strategy for equitable tourism development, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (currently the Ministry of Tourism) in 2024 designated 110 flagship events spread across 38 provinces—a carefully curated move to ensure that every supported event holds true strategic value, whether from a cultural, economic, or destination development perspective. This marks a serious commitment to building the momentum of Indonesia’s event industry through a bottom-to-top approach, rooted in strong local wisdom and growing national relevance.

Source: Elaboration from various media

From the western to the eastern parts of the archipelago, various cities host unique events that both strengthen local identity and attract interest from domestic and international tourists. Some of the regional events included in the Top 10 Karisma Event Nusantara 2024 are:

This series of events not only highlights Indonesia’s diversity but also demonstrates how event-based tourism has become a strategic pillar in national economic development.

It is important to understand that the event industry does not stand alone. It is a complex and interconnected system—comprising six key components: Policy, Supporting Industries, Resources, Market, Marketing, and Demand. The event industry is not merely about stages and audiences, but rather a convergence point between creativity, infrastructure, regulation, and market opportunities—managed through a strategic approach.

The six key components of event industry development reflect a strategically interconnected ecosystem. It begins with Policy, which lays the regulatory foundation and ensures local support, followed by Supporting Industries, encompassing critical infrastructure and logistical services such as accommodation, transportation, and security. Resources emphasize the importance of creative and professional human capital, investment, and research to ensure event quality. The Market component has a broad scope—ranging from domestic and international tourists to MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) stakeholders. Marketing plays a crucial role in digital promotion and destination branding, while Demand highlights the importance of cross-sector collaboration in creating market needs and opportunities for sustainable and impactful event organization.

The implementation of sustainability principles in Indonesia's event industry is also crucial and should be grounded in the 3Ps approach—People, Profit, and Planet—which can serve as the foundation for both policy formulation and operational practices. From the People aspect, the involvement of 8.76 million workers in the event industry in 2024 must be supported by strengthened human resource capacity, empowerment of local communities and MSMEs, inclusivity for vulnerable groups, and integrated occupational safety measures. On the Planet side, the event industry must align with the implementation of event sustainability management systems, waste reduction, energy efficiency, and carbon emission management to minimize the ecological impact of events—for example, by applying ISO 20121:2024 standards. Meanwhile, in terms of Profit, the revenue growth of IDR 88.6 trillion from 8,777 events in 2024 needs to be backed by diversified financing sources, the adoption of digital technologies, strengthening of local economies through event-based IP (intellectual property), and data-driven evaluations.

Despite the promising growth trend, Indonesia’s event industry still faces significant challenges—particularly for its practitioners. The year 2025 is projected to be marked by three key issues that may reduce efficiency in the industry: rising production costs, budget cuts for activities, and the increase of VAT to 12%, which affects both purchasing power and the flexibility of organizers. With approximately 70% of event funding still relying on government and state-owned enterprises (BUMN), Budget efficiency policies must be accompanied by appropriate mitigation measures to ensure they do not directly hinder the strategic role of the event industry in driving the regional creative economy.

Structural challenges across various cities indicate that the growth of the event industry remains uneven. Nearly all major cities face a shortage of professional human resources, with city-specific challenges such as a lack of incentives in Jakarta, infrastructure and promotional issues in Bandung, connectivity and coordination gaps in Yogyakarta, low reputation in Surabaya, and sustainability concerns in Denpasar. These conditions demand a more localized, solution-oriented policy approach tailored to the unique characteristics of each city, in order to ensure that event industry development strategies are more targeted and sustainable.

DESMA Center, in collaboration with the Assistant Deputy for Event Strategy, Deputy for Event Organizer Development, Ministry of Tourism, is developing the “Indonesia’s Tourism Event Industry Development Road Map” in 2025 as a national strategic framework. This initiative aims to address various structural challenges and promote the growth of culture- and creative economy-based events through more focused, measurable policies that are adaptive to the dynamics of the industry at both local and national levels. The roadmap also supports one of the Ministry of Tourism’s flagship programs—developing globally competitive events powered by Indonesian Intellectual Property (IP)—which is expected to enhance the competitiveness, sustainability, and added value of national events on the international stage.