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Breakthroughs needed to accelerate tourism development: Jokowi

Prime tourist destination: A view of Lake Toba in North Sumatra

Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, February 3, 2016

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Breakthroughs needed to accelerate tourism development: Jokowi

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span class="inline inline-center">Prime tourist destination: A view of Lake Toba in North Sumatra. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged for the acceleration of development in ten tourist destinations this year during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo urged for the acceleration of development in ten tourist destinations this year during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.(Photo courtesy of indonesia.travel)

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged for the acceleration of development in ten of the nation'€™s key tourist destinations this year.

Breakthroughs in regulations as well as field works were needed to achieve fast results, said Jokowi during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The ten destinations are Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Tanjung Kelayang in Belitung, Tanjung Lesung in Banten, Thousand Islands in Jakarta, Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Mount Bromo in East Java, Mandalika in South Lombok, Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi and Morotai in North Maluku.

Especially for Lake Toba, Jokowi requested that development of seaports, airports and roads be sped up to increase accessibility and connectivity.

Several ministers, including Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Haldimujono and Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, previously visited Lake Toba and Jokowi said he expected quick results.

"We should also prepare market branding, international-standard services as well as classy arts and cultural attractions with good choreography and interesting designs," said Jokowi.

Rizal said development plans for Lake Toba included shortening the length of the trip from Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang regency from four hours to only 1.5 hours.

Afterwards, the destination would be managed under a single tourism authority as the government aims to make Lake Toba the Monaco of Asia, Rizal said.

Previously, the government revealed its plans to make Lake Toba the country'€™s first single authority tourism site, with the exception of Nusa Dua in Bali, as it aims to simplify infrastructure development and the management of tourism sites in the future.

A presidential regulation associated with the plan is expected to be signed by early 2016.

Indonesia reportedly welcomed 10.4 million foreign tourists and recorded an estimated foreign exchange income of Rp 144 trillion (US$10.5 billion) throughout 2015. (kes)

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