Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who has championed the tourism destination, said people should focus more on the development of the lake. “There is no need to make a fuss anymore. Come on, there are more important jobs to do rather than to only talk about it [halal tourism],” Luhut said during his visit to Laguboti, Toba Samosir regency, North Sumatra, last week.

Luhut appealed for an end to the debate especially because North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi had dropped the idea. “[The governor] does not want to talk about halal tourism in Lake Toba anymore. It is better if we talk about how tourists come to Lake Toba so that the locals can prosper,” Luhut said. He added that there were 35 tourism spots around Lake Toba that were now being developed under government supervision.

Luhut said the government aimed for 1 million tourist visits to Lake Toba and 3 million by 2025.

Governor Edy has denied that he ever made such a suggestion. “It is a hoax, very bad defamation. I am the governor of North Sumatra, I am aware that the people here come from various backgrounds. Some regencies are dominated by Muslims, some are dominated by Christians, that is North Sumatra,” Edy said at the North Sumatra Legislative Council building on Wednesday.

Edy said he had never wanted to apply halal tourism at Lake Toba. He said he was aware that most of the people there were Christians. “Anyone who wants that [halal tourism] is not well balanced,” he said.

North Sumatra General Administration and Asset Assistant M. Fitriyus also tried to clear the air by saying that the halal tourism idea at Lake Toba was not an attempt to proselytize Islam among the residents there, but rather to provide halal tourism spots for Muslim tourists without eliminating the tradition and culture there.

“The suggestion makes it seems as if the North Sumatra provincial administration wanted to eliminate the local culture through halal tourism. It’s not like that. The halal tourism that we wanted to apply was not to Islamize the area, but more to provide halal choices for Muslim tourists without eliminating the local culture of Lake Toba,” Fitriyus told the press.

Meanwhile, North Sumatra native, Hasrul Azwar, who is now Indonesian ambassador to Morocco and Mauritania said that halal tourism was simply about management. Hasrul said many non-Muslim countries applied the halal tourism concept.

“Spain, Japan, Korea and Thailand cooperate with travel bureaus to provide halal tourism and they can increase foreign tourist visits,” Hasrul told The Jakarta Post by text message last week. (gis)

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