REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has called on Indonesian vacationers to postpone their planned overseas tour. The call was conveyed to help the government curb foreign exchange leakage amid the rupiah's weakening against the dollar.

"We hope they would take their holidays at home," Yahya noted here on Friday.

According to the minister, tourism is one of the sectors expected to boost the national economy amid the rupiah's depreciation against the dollar due to a current account deficit. Tourism is one of the sectors providing the main solution to the current account deficit apart from boosting exports, intensifying the use of domestic products as substitute for imported goods, and encouraging the use of biodiesel B20 to reduce oil imports, he remarked.

"I think this is a good momentum for us to better explore Indonesia and boost our nationalism, so we will not spend a great deal of dollars abroad," he noted.

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He said the Tourism Ministry is making all-out efforts to enhance the performance of the tourism sector to contribute significantly to the country's foreign exchange earnings.

More than nine million tourists had visited Indonesia in the first seven months of this year. It was a half of the government's optimistic target of 18 million tourists for this year.

The rupiah traded at Rp14,881 against the dollar in the Jakarta inter-bank spot market on Friday morning. It fell slightly by eight points from the previous close of Rp14,873.

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