The ASEAN Summit in 2023 is the best momentum to continue to push for promotion of the tourism sector in Indonesia, which has great potential and has proven to far outperform other tourism in regional countries.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy ( Menparekraf RI ), Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno considers that Indonesia’s chairmanship in the 2023 ASEAN Summit is a golden opportunity to be able to continue to strengthen the promotion of all tourism potential in Indonesia.
He stated that by entrusting Indonesia as chair of the ASEAN Summit this year, it was an opportunity to be able to show that the tourism sector in Indonesia is the best among regional countries and is a leading destination in ASEAN.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy considers that the tourism sector in Indonesia is indeed superior, especially when compared to other ASEAN member countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and even the Philippines. This nation is considered to have enormous potential in the tourism sector.
Of course, with the potential ownership of the tourism sector which is so large and very promising, it must be the main focus to help revive the national economy, which was previously affected by the COVID -19 pandemic .
Because by doing a deeper focus to be able to continue to promote tourism in Indonesia, then of course at the same time being able to help improve the economy of the community.
Sandiaga Uno explained that there are several tourism sectors that have even received world-class awards, such as Sanankerto Village which won third place in the Tourist Attraction Village Category and received appreciation from the international forum for its participation in the fifth ASEAN Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Awards in 2022.
Therefore, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy also continues to strive to encourage other tourism, which is not only on the island of Java, but really all places in Indonesia so that it can become a world-class tourist village.
Not only carrying out ongoing promotions , especially in the momentum of becoming chairman of the ASEAN Summit 2023, but the Government of Indonesia will also provide assistance to existing tourism actors by providing mentoring training and the Indonesian Tourism Village Award program. The hope for the future is that there will be more tourist visits both from abroad and from the archipelago.
It is also known that the Government of Indonesia is targeting that the ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) be able to attract visits of up to 1.1 million international tourists, mainly in the Komodo National Park.
Of course, this figure is not just a target and a mere wishful thinking for the government, but is also balanced with the construction of a number of infrastructures in Labuan Baho , including the route to Bajo- Golo Mori which was inaugurated on March 14 , 2023.
The next task for Labuan Bajo to be able to meet the tourist visit target of up to 1.1 million people is to add even more new destinations. This is because the Government of Indonesia only receives as many as 200 thousand tourist visits to the Komodo National Park each year. This is intended to be able to continue to maintain the sustainability of the area.
Thus, it is clear that there is a great need for the creation of new destinations and new clusters , which also correlate with the quality of visits from tourists and sustainability, as well as their length of stay being much more increased and certainly able to make them shop more and participate in improving the economy local residents.
In the same vein, the City Government ( Pemkot ) of Central Jakarta ( Jakpus ) continues to take advantage of the 2023 ASEAN Summit as an arena to be able to promote superior tourism in their region. Dhany Sukma as Mayor of Central Jakarta admits that he continues to involve all village officials to participate in improving the cleanliness of various sectors, starting from cleanliness, beauty of parks, bus stops to sidewalks and greening since January 1 2023.
According to him, all these efforts were made so that all ASEAN country delegations could be interested in the condition of the region and also the leading tourism in Central Jakarta. It is his duty to be able to assist the implementation of the ASEAN Summit to be comfortable and also bring the good name of Jakarta, especially Indonesia in the eyes of the world.
It cannot be denied that the potential possessed by the tourism sector in Indonesia is far superior when compared to the tourism sector in other countries in the ASEAN region. Therefore , with Indonesia’s chairmanship at the 2023 ASEAN Sumit Summit , it is a very golden moment to participate in encouraging the promotion of the tourism sector in the country .
)* The author is a contributor to Persada Institute
