Abstract
PurposeTourism is an essential industry in Indonesia, and understanding its inter-sectoral and inter-regional connections is critical for policy development. This study examines the economic impact of regional tourism in Indonesia and the connections between different tourism-related regions and industries.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a non-survey method to estimate the inter-regional input-output table (IRIOT) in 2019, backward and forward linkage to identify the role of tourism in the economy, and the structural path analysis (SPA) to identify the inter-sectoral and inter-regional flow of tourism effect. The benchmark IRIOT 2016 published by Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) serves as the primary data source.FindingsThe findings indicate that tourism has a relatively high impact on the overall national economy and plays an essential role in nine provinces. However, this study uses four provinces to represent Indonesian tourism: Jakarta, Jawa Timur, Bali, and Kepulauan Riau. The SPA result captures that Kepulauan Riau Province has the highest tourism multiplier effect and Jawa Timur has the highest coverage value. Moreover, the manufacturing sector receives the most benefit from the tourism effect, followed by trade, construction, agriculture, transportation, and electricity-gas. From a spatial perspective, tourism connections are not solely based on geographical proximity. Instead, they are established through an intricate supply chain network of manufactured goods. This emphasizes the significance of considering supply chain dynamics when investigating inter-regional relationships in the tourism sector.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by estimating the IRIOT in 2019, disaggregating tourism activities from related economic sectors, constructing tourism-extended IRIOT, and identifying the critical path of tourism effect in numerous provinces with different economic structures. This novel approach offers valuable insights into the full spectrum of tourism’s economic impact, which has not been previously explored in this depth. This study is useful for policymaking, investment insight, and disaster mitigation.