Luhut: Government on Right Track in Tourism Development

Jakarta, InfoPublik - Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan stated that the government is on the right track in tourism development to reach the 2019 foreign exchange target from the tourism sector.

“We are on the right track. When others start to plan, we however have taken steps that are significant in my opinion,” said Luhut who was accompanied by Tourism Minister Arief Yahya and Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo at a press conference of the coordination meeting between the central government, local governments, and the central bank at the Bank Indonesia Building, Jakarta, Monday (3/18).

Luhut explained that one of the steps that will be taken is to make a digital format of tourism promotion material. Such form was proven to be effective in bringing tourists during the Annual Meeting of WB-IMF in 2018.

“So, we will also digitize tourism promotion materials because during the previous WB-IMF Annual Meeting, we could significantly raise the number of tourists in just two weeks. We agreed with BI and Tourism Minister that we will encourage the use of digitization,” he explained.

In respond to the question on the global economic slowdown that may affect the number of visit, Luhut said that there was no sign to that direction.

“So far, we have not seen that sign but we have prepared the measures. We predict the number of tourists will increase. Nowadays, people’s needs on holiday are growing and the number of middle class also starts to increase,” said Luhut.

He continued to explain the progress of various infrastructure developments in tourist destination regions, among others New Yogyakarta International Airport (NYIA) which will be on operation in April for international flights and in October for all flights.

“It will certainly help to boost the number of tourist who visit Borobudur Temple. In the short term, we want to increase the number of tourist to 2 to 2.5 million from previously 1 million,” he said.

There is also the I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali with its second exit runway which is expected to be completed in October. It will gradually increase the number of passenger from 29 to 39 million. In addition, hotel occupancy rate which is currently at 60 percent is expected to increase to 80 percent.

While for Lake Toba, there have been agreements with Malaysia and Singapore and in the future with China and India.

“We will also promote Lake Toba. Last year, there were 430,000 tourists and the number will increase this year. We will continue to develop it,” he concluded.

BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said that a number of agreements concluded in Jogjakarta at the previous coordination meeting in August 2018 had been implemented in a proper and continuous manner by the central government, local governments, and the central bank.

“Today’s coordination meeting also discussed the required measures to improve tourism sector which has a target of 20 million foreign tourists with US$17.6 billion for this year. A number of strategies has also been discussed within the corridors of 3A (Access, Attraction, and Amenity) and 2P (Promotion and Business Player),” he explained. (Untung S, Wisnu Wardoyo).