Arief began his address by mentioning the fact that tourism has been set as the nation’s leading economy sector by President Joko Widodo. In the 2018 government work plan (RKP), there are three leading sectors that are listed in the plan: Agriculture, Tourism and Fishery.

“I often discuss with the President about the core industries of this nation that will contribute the most for the country,” Arief said.

In manufacturing, for example, not a single country can compete against China for this industry. The situation is similar with information, where the five best companies in the industry are American companies.

“So now there are only creative economy and tourism, I said that there’s a possibility that we will be the biggest and the best in the region and globally,” he added, also noting that the nation’s main core is cultural industry and this has the potential to be huge.

Arief moreover said he felt a bit odd if the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) doesn't measure tourism industry’s contribution to the GDP, foreign exchange and labor.

“If tourism has been set as a leading sector, it would be odd if BPS doesn’t measure those things,” the minister said.

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Indonesia is included in The Telegraph's list of Top 20 Fastest Growing Travel Destinations in the World, which means that the nation’s growth rate is on par with the global standard.

“ASEAN itself has the [tourism] growth of six percent, so does the world’s growth rate. But Indonesia has the rate of 24 percent, four times than the regional and global growth,” Arief explained.

Meanwhile, the neighboring country Malaysia who the minister considers as the country’s biggest competitors has a decrease in its tourism growth with the rate is under five percent.

In 2016 Indonesia has won 46 awards in 22 countries, the Wonderful Indonesia tourism brand is in the 47^th spot in the global ranking whilst Thailand is at the 83^rd spot and Malaysia is at the 96^th spot.

Recently, Indonesia won the people’s choice awards and East Asia and Pacific region categories at the UNWTO Video Competition.

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Arief explained that to become a global player, a global standard needs to be implemented and for this matter Arief is referring to the 14 pillars of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TCCI) by World Economic Forum (WEF).

Out of the 14 pillars, Indonesia wins at price competitiveness whilst its weakest point is at environmental sustainability.

Back in 2015, Indonesia jumped up 20 spots to the 70^th position and for this year Indonesia takes the 42^nd spot out of 181 countries that are being assessed by WEF.

When it comes to tourism events, a good preparation is very important. Arief admitted that the ministry’s events always have a problem in time consistency.

The next problem is budget management, “These two things need the commitment from CEOs and district heads. If a mayor and regent is unable to hold [an event] the event will then get rescheduled, this is what’s wrong,” he said.

Arief is committed to providing the budget for promotion and publication, “Your weakness is you don’t want to invest on media hence I will be in charge for that,” he said. (asw)

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