DPD Proposes Indonesia Affordable Tourism Program

Jakarta, InfoPublik - West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member Baiq Diyah Ratu Ganefi proposed to establish an affordable tourism program in order to boost the number of local and foreign visitors.

"Otherwise, Indonesia would be less competitive than its neighboring countries. We must have an affordable tourism program to attract tourists to Indonesia," she said during a hearing between DPD Committee III with the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies in Jakarta on Tuesday (2/7).

She explained that Indonesia holds huge potencials as the world tourism destination, despite a number of obstacles.

According to her, the travel cost to various regions of Indonesia is very expensive compared to other countries, making local tourists prefer to travel abroad. "Private sectors and government must create affordable tourism in Indonesia," she said.

So far, The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Deputy Chairman for Tourism Kosmian Pudjiadi said, the main problem was the lack of and unoptimized management of tourism areas. "The most fundamental in developing tourism destination is  standardization," he said.

He added that the entertainment tax reached the maximum rate of 75 percent in some areas in Indonesia. The main reason of this high retribution is to avoid specific entertainment business license requests from businessmen. "We have the highest (tax retribution) in the world. The retribution should be no more than 10 percent, in Singapore for example is only 15 percent," he said. (Translator: Rina Alexandra)