President Jokowi to Utilise Tourism Sector as Stimulus to Economy

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has evidently attempted to gradually actualize his so-called Nawacita ‘prioritized’ program with main concentration placed mostly on both infrastructure and the fulcrum of maritime sector.

In spite of such realization that the two aforementioned sectors hold great importance in the development of the archipelago state as a nation, President Jokowi refuses to exclude the importance of tourism sector in contributing to the national progression.

As for that matter, President Jokowi is keen to do all necessary measures to increase the number of foreign visitors in Indonesia and this ambition has also been motivated by the successfully increased number of visitors in 2015.

“According to the information yielded by the Ministry of Tourism, in 2015, the increased amount of visitors reached 10.4 million. This is a particularly ignificant hike and the estimated foreign exchange accepted in this particular sector is Rp 144 trillion,” President Jokowi stated in his opening statement during private meeting held for tourism destination development planning on Toba lake on Tuesday 2 February 2016.

That number immediately motivates President Jokowi and involving sector to maintain such success and to further improve it so in the future, the number would significantly increase. Such also provides the blueprint for this year’s unfailing ambition to increase the number of visitors into Indonesian region.

“I personally request for the growth in tourism sector to be accelerated at significant rate in 2016. That is of course to help boost the national economy as well,” President Jokowi further stated.

President Jokowi instructed Tourism Minister Arief Yahya to make furtherance of the his government’s ambition to label tourism sector as one of the stimulus to the national economic progressions.

He requested for Minister Yahya to prioritize these 10 destination places to attract more foreigners: Mandalika, Labuhan Bajo, Bromo-Tengger-Semeru, Kepulauan Seribu, Toba lake, Wakatobi, Tanjung Lesung, Morotai and Tanjung Kelayang.

According to President Jokowi, planning should done as early as possible so that branding for marketing strategy as well as the management of those places can be sorted out as to hasten execution process.