I

n order to develop the tourism sector as a key driver of the country’s economy, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative industries plans to hold a major tourism conference in Jakarta next month.

Minister for Tourism and Creative Industries Mari Elka Pangestu said in Jakarta on Monday that the event, the first ever national-level tourism conference, would be held from Dec. 5 to 6 this year and would be attended by business people, senior officials from both regional governments across the archipelago and central government.

She said that the conference would discuss tourism-related issues including improving the awareness of people in the regions in promoting tourism in their respective provinces.

“The tourism sector has great potential to improve the economy in Indonesia because it contributes significantly to regional incomes and has multiplier effects in the development of the regional economy,” she said.

She said the conference would discuss four main pillars in the Master Plan of National Tourism Development (Ripparnas) namely the development of tourism, the improvement of tourism marketing strategies, the improvement of tourism sector competitiveness and the establishment of reliable tourism related institutions.

“We realize that heads of regional governments have their own visions and missions to develop their respective regions. Through this conference, we will encourage them to make the tourism sector one of the main priorities in their economic-development plans,” she said.

West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Bali are in Corridor Five of the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI) as a gate for tourism and require
Rp 121.6 trillion (US$13.74 billion) of investment to support tourism development.

However, Mari said that all regions in Indonesia should be able to boost their tourism sectors because well-developed tourism would create more jobs and bring wealth to the people.

Sapta Nirwandar, the deputy minister said that only 10 percent of regional governments were enthusiastic about tourism and had been working for years to develop the sector.

Among these regions were Bali, Java, North Sumatra, Riau, Bangka Belitung, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi, he said.

“Now, there are some 20 to 30 percent of regions who are starting to have a strong interest in boosting the tourism sector such as Lampung,” he said.

Last month, the Tourism Indonesia Mart & Expo 2011 (TIME) was held in Bandar Lampung from Oct. 12 to 14 in order to convince tourists and travel agents that Lampung was rich in tourism potential as the province had Mt. Anak Krakatau, Teluk Kiluan, Way Kambas National Park and Tanjung Setia Beach, he said.

Based on World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)’s data in 2010, Indonesia’s tourism sector contributed 9.1 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employed 8.9 million people.

The WTTC data also showed Indonesia’s investment in the tourism sector reached 4.2 percent in 2010, Mari said.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia as of September 2011 reached 5.61 million, an 8.26 percent increase on the same period last year.

Sapta said that the ministry expected 7.7 million visitors for 2011, up 10 percent on the 7 million that visited in 2010. Tourist expenditure is also expected to rise to $8.4 billion from $7.6 billion. In addition, as winter approached in the northern hemisphere, sunny destinations such as Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia should see arrivals rise even further, he said. (nfo)