“As a leading sector, all ministries and institutions are required to support the program. We are targeting tourism as the largest foreign exchange contributor,” said Arief after attending the third national coordination meeting on tourism in Jakarta as quoted by kompas.com.

He said to boost tourist arrivals from 2019 to 2024, the country needed 120,000 more hotel rooms, 15,000 restaurants, 100 recreational parks, 100 diving operators, 100 marinas, 100 tourism special economic zones and 100,000 homestays.

He said meeting participants tried to map out the investment needs and financial resources.

The government projects that it will obtain $20 billion from tourists in 2019.

Arief said balance of payment in the tourist sector posted a surplus in the last four years, meaning that the amount of money spent by foreign tourists was higher than the amount spent by Indonesian tourists abroad.

Previously, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo decided on 10 tourist destinations that would be developed by the government.

 Arief said the funding would be used to develop the 10 tourist destinations and finance homestays and small and medium enterprises focusing on tourism. 

“For homestays, we need Rp 2 trillion, while for SMEs we need Rp 25 trillion,” he said. (bbn)

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