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Tourism Industry wants to benefit from rupiah depreciation
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Tourists on speedboats travel around the Telaga Sarangan tourist spot in Magetan, East Java, on June 17. (Antara/Fikri Yusuf)
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Tourism Ministry official has said the ministry wants to have a blessing in disguise from the rupiah's depreciation against the United States dollar by boosting promotion of lower-cost holidays in the country.
The head of the Tourism Ministry's working group for the acceleration of 10 new tourist destinations development, Hiramsyah S. Thalib, said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the ministry would improve promotional activities to boost tourist arrivals.
“We hope that more tourist arrivals will be able to have a positive impact on the country’s economy,” he said as reported by kompas.com when speaking at a coordination meeting between local government, central government and Bank Indonesia (BI) on tourism development acceleration.
The rupiah exchange rate is now at around Rp 14,600 per US dollar, or 7.04 percent lower than its position in January.
Hiramsyah stressed the importance of simultaneous efforts by all stakeholders – regional governments, central governments and tour operators – to use any momentum to develop tourism.
Meanwhile, BI executive director for monetary policy Aida Budiman said competitiveness was important factor in tourism, but the impact of the rupiah's depreciation was only temporary. Therefore, he added, the government had to continuously improve competitiveness through various programs.
“Speaking about the exchange rate is just about price, which is only short term. We cannot rely just on the rupiah depreciation. We have to improve the competitiveness of our destinations,” said Aida, stressing the importance of dealing with better quality of attractions, accessibility and amenities.(bbn)
