“[Learn to] understand the greatness of Thailand in handling security, culinary, street food and homestay,” Arief said at the KBRI office in Bangkok on Sept. 28.

Arief mentioned that the culinary and street food of Thailand is very famous in the world, there’s always a Thailand restaurant in every country in the world and it’s always crowded with visitors. Thailand offers dishes that are suitable for Asian, European, Australian and American tastebuds.

“We have to learn from the success of Thailand because we’ve set them as our professional enemy,” added Arief.

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Arief also encouraged Indonesian diaspora and KBRI to learn about the security in Thailand after hearing two of his friends talking about how good the service and safety in that country, “Please study this, we are willing to learn. The person-in-charge of this is Kiki [the ministry's Southeast Asia tourism promotion assistant deputy, Rizki Handayani],” he said.

President Joko Widodo has set tourism as one of the nation’s economic cores, for the past three years tourism has been the leading sector and in 2018 it will be one of the three main prioritized industries besides agriculture and fishery.

“We will gladly help, last year Thailand welcomed 32 million overseas tourists,” said Ahmad.

According to The Telegraph, Indonesia is included in the Top 20 Fastest Growing Travel Destinations in the World.

The growth rate of overseas tourists in Indonesia is close to 24 percent whilst the growth rates for both ASEAN and global at six percent.

By the end of the discussion, Arief requested for the formation of a special team who will learn about the Thailand tourism industry. (asw)

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