'Practice what you preach' is exactly what the Tourism Ministry does with its “go-digital” campaign. The ministry not only applies the "go digital" philosophy to its promotional activities, it also brings it to its office.

An area called War Room M-17 was launched last year, located on the 16^th floor of Sapta Pesona Building, Jakarta. The area features interactive dashboards showcasing tourism promotions for Indonesia, other countries, tourism destinations, top 10 priority destinations and human resources institutions.

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“This is big data, a combination of small and corporate data as well as social media. The data is very important and can become an early warning system for the tourism ministry to know what’s happening out there,” said the Tourism Minister, Arief Yahya.

This is also the place where the ministry monitors what other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam are doing in order to attract Chinese tourists, for example.

When Thailand is clicked on the dashboard, destinations such as Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya will show up on the screen along with a list of current events there and information about access, cuisine, security, cleanliness, accommodation and other services.

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“The tagline of War Room M-17 is ‘know the world, know yourself, know your enemy and you will win the battle. Know your customer, know yourself and you will win the competition,’” Yahya added. (asw)