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Govt to focus on 10 tourist destinations
The government will focus on the development of 10 emerging tourist destinations in a bid to double the number of foreign tourist arrivals within the next five years
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The government will focus on the development of 10 emerging tourist destinations in a bid to double the number of foreign tourist arrivals within the next five years.
The plan was announced after a meeting between Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan and Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, among others, on Monday.
'We decided to focus on tourist locations with the most potential to jump-start tourism growth in Indonesia,' Rizal told a press briefing.
The selected priority destinations include Lake Toba in North Sumatera, Bromo in East Java, Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara, Tanjung Lesung in Banten and Morotai in Maluku. Thousand Islands off the coast of Jakarta and Yogyakarta were also among the emerging destinations to be developed.
'The Thousand Islands was chosen because Jakarta is the second-largest tourist destination,' Rizal said.
The most important aspect of the program will be the development of adequate infrastructure such as roads, sea ports and airports to open access to the tourist destinations, Arief said.
As development progresses, the government would invite investors to build hotels and other supporting facilities in the areas, he added.
Meanwhile, Basuki said the most intensive development would be at Lake Toba, due to the poor condition of the road to the lake and consequent 5-hour trip from nearby Medan city. He also said that the Mandalika area should be developed as it was quite like a 'slum'.
'We will focus on these 10 destinations this year, and switch to others next year. However, we will finish development in these areas as it will take some time,' Basuki said, adding that the ministry would also increase access to water in the areas.
The development of the emerging tourist destinations comes alongside the government's plan to waive visas for 47 more countries this year, in addition to the visa exemptions for 30 countries implemented in June.
The government plans to increase tourist visits to 20 million people over the next five years from 10 million people a year at present. An additional one million foreign tourists are expected to arrive this year.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), foreign tourist visits as of July reached 5.47 million, a 2.69 percent increase from the same period last year.
Rizal added that the government aimed to pocket US$20 billion in foreign exchange income from tourism over the next five years, twice the current amount of $10 billion.
However, the ministers refused to disclose the budget for the infrastructure development as it was still being discussed in the House of Representatives.
The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies' (Asita) chairman Asnawi Bahar warned that the government should prioritize as there was a limited budget and only four years to develop the areas.
'If they want to develop ten destinations, will they make it? They should undertake short-term projects. If not, they should focus on one priority destination, as Malaysia has done,' Asnawi said, referring to Malaysia's plan to focus on promoting one tourism destination a year.
Asnawi also said that the government needed a long-term blueprint as the lack of commitment and focus were responsible for previous administration's failure to boost tourism in 10 provinces.
'Focus the budget on certain places, because if we assign a small budget for each area, it might not be sustainable or will not achieve optimal development,' he said. (fsu)
