Indonesia Turns Its Culinary Heritage into a Major Tourism Attraction
More than half of Indonesia’s foreign visitors take part in food-related activities, while a national gastronomy program is bringing regional dishes, markets, restaurants and culinary traditions to a wider international audience.
Food has become one of the strongest attractions for international visitors traveling through Indonesia, according to data highlighted by the country's Tourism Ministry. In 2025, 58 % of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia participated in culinary or gastronomic (gastronomi) activities during their stay. The figure indicates that eating local dishes, visiting food markets and exploring regional specialties are no longer secondary activities for many travelers. Instead, food is increasingly being incorporated directly into Indonesia's strategy for attracting visitors and encouraging them to explore destinations beyond the country's best-known beaches and resorts.
Indonesia is particularly suited to food-based tourism because its cuisine reflects enormous geographical and cultural diversity. The country stretches across thousands of islands, producing substantial differences in ingredients, cooking methods and eating traditions from one region to another. This vast archipelago (kepulauan) contains communities whose cuisines have developed around different climates, crops, fishing traditions, trading routes and historical influences. A traveler moving from Sumatra to Java, Bali, Sulawesi or eastern Indonesia can therefore encounter entirely different combinations of spices, staples, sauces and cooking techniques.
The Indonesian government is attempting to transform this culinary diversity into a more recognizable international tourism product. Wonderful Indonesia Gastronomy 2026, known as WIG 2026, has been organized by the Tourism Ministry together with the Indonesia Gastronomy Network. Its program examines dishes not simply as finished meals but also through ingredients, farming, markets, traditions and the cultural background surrounding them. Particular attention is being given to the provenance (asal-usul) of ingredients and recipes, allowing visitors to understand where foods originate and how they became associated with particular Indonesian communities.
The principal WIG 2026 activities are taking place in Solo and Yogyakarta from September 26 to October 4. These two Central Javanese cities provide a combination of traditional markets, royal culinary traditions, historic neighborhoods and contemporary restaurants. Organizers are also preparing curated (terkurasi) experiences that connect food with places such as temples, batik districts and local markets. Additional activities are being organized in cities including Jakarta, Bali, Semarang and Surabaya, turning the initiative into a broader national promotion rather than an event limited to a single destination.
Solo provides a particularly useful example of how Indonesian food tourism can be connected with a city's wider cultural identity. Visitors participating in the program can explore Pasar Gede, one of the city's major traditional markets, where vegetables, spices, snacks and prepared dishes are sold alongside everyday household products. The program also highlights artisanal (buatan pengrajin) food production, including small-scale products whose techniques or ingredients are closely associated with particular communities. Kampung Laweyan, historically associated with batik production, is another stop designed to connect culinary experiences with the broader history and creative industries of the city.
Yogyakarta offers a different combination of traditional and modern Indonesian food culture. The city is already widely known for dishes such as gudeg, traditionally prepared from young jackfruit cooked slowly with coconut milk and seasonings. Food is also treated as part of Yogyakarta's broader cultural heritage (warisan), rather than simply as something served in restaurants. Traditional markets, street-food vendors, palace-related cuisine and newer dining establishments together provide travelers with several ways of encountering Javanese culinary traditions.
One goal of Wonderful Indonesia Gastronomy is to encourage travelers to understand the process behind Indonesian food instead of simply ordering a finished dish. Visitors may encounter farmers, producers, markets, chefs and restaurants as different stages within the same food system. Some of the program's activities are designed to be immersive (imersif), allowing participants to experience markets, ingredients, food preparation and regional traditions directly. This approach can make relatively unfamiliar foods easier to understand because travelers learn why particular ingredients are used and how dishes are connected to the places where they developed.
Indonesia's tourism authorities also emphasize that restaurants represent only one part of the country's food economy. Farmers, livestock producers, fishermen, food manufacturers, market vendors, chefs and small businesses all contribute to what eventually appears on a restaurant table. Together they form a large ecosystem (ekosistem) connecting agriculture and fishing with transportation, hospitality, retail and tourism. Culinary tourism can therefore generate spending across several sectors when visitors buy ingredients, attend food events, visit markets, stay in hotels and travel between destinations.
The scale of Indonesia's tourism market gives this strategy considerable economic significance. Indonesia received approximately 15.39 million international visitors in 2025, the country's highest total in six years. From January through July 2026, international arrivals had already reached about 8.98 million, while authorities set a full-year target of between 16 million and 17 million foreign visitors. Encouraging travelers to develop a more adventurous palate (selera) could increase spending on restaurants, markets, cooking experiences and locally produced foods while also encouraging visits to destinations that international tourists may previously have overlooked.
Food experiences are also being combined with conventional sightseeing rather than promoted as completely separate activities. Participants in one WIG program are scheduled to explore Solo and Yogyakarta while visiting cultural destinations including Borobudur and Prambanan temples. Their itinerary (rencana perjalanan) also includes Pasar Gede, the historic batik district of Laweyan and other culinary and cultural locations. This combination illustrates how food can become part of a longer travel route, allowing visitors to experience a destination through architecture, history, crafts and cuisine during the same journey.
The program also includes efforts to document restaurants and more informal places to eat. Indonesia is preparing an Indonesia Gourmet Guide featuring selected restaurants in participating cities as well as a separate Indonesia Local Eateries publication covering traditional restaurants, markets and culinary centers. Documenting these establishments may contribute to the preservation (pelestarian) of regional food traditions by drawing attention to businesses and communities that continue preparing local dishes. It also provides travelers with options beyond luxury restaurants, which is particularly useful in Indonesia because many important dishes are commonly eaten in simple neighborhood establishments or traditional markets.
A public Artisan Market in Yogyakarta is another part of the 2026 program. Organizers plan to bring together producers offering foods such as cheese, honey, tea and other locally produced specialty products. The event should increase the visibility (visibilitas) of smaller producers who might otherwise have limited access to international tourists or overseas media. Workshops and food tastings are also planned, allowing visitors to compare products while learning about how they are produced.
The initiative extends beyond Solo and Yogyakarta through a much larger restaurant promotion later in the year. Indonesia Restaurant Months is scheduled to involve around 150 selected restaurants in Jakarta, Bali, Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Solo. This geographical dispersion (penyebaran) allows culinary tourism campaigns to reach travelers visiting very different parts of Java and Bali rather than concentrating all activity in one city. A separate culinary festival involving shopping centers is also planned across numerous Indonesian cities, including Bandung, Pontianak, Palembang, Denpasar and Kendari.
International promotion is another important component of the strategy. WIG 2026 invited representatives from international media and organizations associated with restaurant and travel coverage to experience Indonesian food and destinations directly. Such exposure can strengthen Indonesia's recognition (pengakuan) as a food destination in markets where Indonesian cuisine remains less internationally familiar than some other Asian cuisines. Indonesia had already received the New Destination Champion Award 2026 from La Liste, a France-based restaurant guide and ranking organization, following increased international attention to its dining scene.
For travelers, Indonesia's culinary diversity can also be a practical reason to move between regions instead of remaining in a single resort area. A visitor can encounter Padang-style dishes from West Sumatra, Javanese foods in Yogyakarta and Solo, Balinese preparations, seafood traditions in coastal areas and numerous regional sweets, sauces and snacks. Exploring these differences reveals the regionality (kekhasan daerah) of Indonesian cuisine, in which dishes and ingredients are often strongly associated with specific provinces, cities or communities. Traditional markets can be particularly useful places for language learners because food names, numbers, quantities and everyday expressions are used repeatedly in real transactions.
Indonesian food vocabulary also provides an accessible introduction to the language because many words appear frequently on menus and signs. Learners traveling in the country will quickly encounter terms such as makanan for food, minuman for drink, pedas for spicy, manis for sweet and pasar for market. More advanced learners can explore culinary terminology (istilah) connected with preparation methods, ingredients and regional dishes. Following Indonesian food reporting also introduces useful words such as kuliner for culinary matters, wisatawan for tourist, hidangan for dish and bahan pangan for food ingredients.
The prominence of culinary tourism shows how Indonesia is attempting to turn everyday eating traditions into a broader travel experience. Food-related programs increasingly connect restaurants with farms, markets, artisans, historic sites and cultural activities rather than treating meals as isolated services for tourists. This broader integration (keterpaduan) can make food an important factor in deciding where visitors travel, how long they stay and how much of a region they explore. With more than half of foreign tourists already reporting culinary or gastronomic activities during their visits, Indonesian cuisine is becoming an increasingly visible part of the country's international tourism strategy.
Key Indonesian Vocabulary
gastronomi gastronomic
kepulauan archipelago
asal-usul provenance
terkurasi curated
buatan pengrajin artisanal
warisan heritage
imersif immersive
ekosistem ecosystem
selera palate
rencana perjalanan itinerary
pelestarian preservation
visibilitas visibility
penyebaran dispersion
pengakuan recognition
kekhasan daerah regionality
istilah terminology
keterpaduan integration
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