One of the ambitious targets is in the tourism sector with target set at 20 million arrivals in 2019 or more than doubling the record figure of 9.7 million in 2015.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Two years have past since Joko Widodo (Jokowi) took over the presidency in October 2014. Jokowi has done a lot amid the turbulent period.

He has set a number of ambitious targets for his government to achieve when he ends his present term of office in October 2019.

One of the ambitious targets is in the tourism sector with target set at 20 million arrivals in 2019 or more than doubling the record figure of 9.7 million in 2015.

This year, the target for the number of foreign tourists arrivals is 12 billion. The government needs to end each of the remaining three years with new record to ensure that the target could be achieved.

In the first seven months of the year, the number of foreign tourist arrivals already reached 6.3 million. The figure gave optimism that the target would be achieved for the whole year as more visitors are expected toward the end of the year.

The government under the Tourism Minister Arief Yahya has been especially aggressive in promoting the countrys tourism wealth to attract foreign visitors.

The ministry launched intensive promotional campaigns with what is called "Wonderful Indonesia" and organized international festivals and seminars on tourism.

International sports events were organized such as the Tour De Flores, Tour de Singakarak and Tour De Timor. The cycling races are to be made annual events participated in by world class cyclists.

The international sports events have drawn the spotlights to the regions showing their respective tourist objects.

In March 2016, the government allowed travelers from more countries to visit Indonesia without visa. Altogether, visa free travel was offered to people from 169 countries , a policy expected to attract more tourists to the country.

Meanwhile cooperation is expanded with counterparts and other relevant agencies abroad in joint promotion and marketing.

Priority is given to development of "10 New Bali" to create 10 new tourist destinations equal to Bali in performance. Bali is the countrys largest tourist destination drawing around 4 million foreign tourists a year.

The ten potential tourist destinations to be in priority for development in 2016 include Lake Toba of North Sumatra, Belitung in southern Sumatra, Tanjung Lesung of Banten, the Thousand Island in Jakarta Bay, the Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Central Java, Mount Bromo in East Java, Mandalika Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, the Komodo island of East Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi National Park of Southeast Sulawesi, and Morotai of North Maluku. n

In a report "Two years of the Jokowi-JK Government issued by the office of the presidential staff, that the government performance on the tourism sector has to be measured by four components - visits by domestic tourists, visits by foreign tourists, foreign exchange income and number of jobs created in the tourism sector.

Data at the Tourism Ministry showed that the number of domestic tourists in arrivals in 2015 totaled 255 million .

"Go digital"

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said Indonesia has to go digital in marketing its tourism wealth and to make the country a digital market place .

The ministry launched Travel X-Change Indonesia (TXI) on August 17 this year, coinciding with the country's 71st anniversary.

"I will prove that the use of digital technology is going to take Indonesian tourism to a new level," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya was quoted as saying.

Arief has studied Australia's digital marketplace platform called Tourism Travel X-change Australia (TXA), an inclusive booking platform that helps market tourism-related business through an online platform.

Indonesias TXI would be a one-stop service in which people from around the world could look into tourism packages to all destinations in Indonesia offered by travel agents on the platform, Arief said.

The service will also allow potential customers to book and purchase travel packages.

Under the presidential instruction No. 8 on August 26, 2016, in the government announced a belt tightening policy to cope with swelling budget deficit . The budget of all 85 ministries and other government agencies including the tourism Ministry was cut .

The budget for the Tourism Ministry was slashed by Rp1.2 trillion from Rp5.4 trillion to Rp4.2 trillion.

Deputy for Tourism Marketing, Promotion and Development I Gde Pitana said the impact of the budget cut was significant on promotion and marketing .

The tourism Ministry has changed its marketing strategy. Originally 50 percent of the budget was for branding, 30 percent for advertisements, and 20 percent for selling. With the cut in the budget, the biggest share or 50 percent of the budget is given for selling , with branding to have 20 percent and advertisements to have 30 percent.

"In short term it would be good , but not for long term," Arief said.

The tourism sector would always need strong branding that the impact would be positive in long term, the minister said.

In order to make up for the negative impact of the budget cut, the tourism sector has to create synergy with various related stakeholders, he said.

The synergy has been created by the ministry of state enterprises (BUMN). On April 27, 2016, BUMN Minister Rino Soemarno created synergy to develop tourism in Yogyakarta, Solo, and Semarang - called Joglosemar.

The synergy agreement involving 12 BUMNs was signed in Prambanan, Yogyakarta in a ceremony attended by Rini. The 12 BUMNs included PT Pelindo III, PT Garuda Indonesia, PT Angkasa Pura I, PT Kereta Api Indonesia, Perum Perhutani, PT Perkebunan Nasional (PTPN) IX, Perum Damri, Taman Wisata Candi, Hotel Indonesia Natour, ITDC (Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation), PT Patra Jasa, and PT Aerowisata.

The day after, Rini Soemarno instructed two BUMNs, PT Pertaminas subsidiary PT Patra Jasa and PT Garuda Indonesia to take part in the development of tourism in Banyuwangi, East Java.

The two steps taken by the minister indicated the seriousness of the government in developing the countrys tourism sector.

Indonesia is still far lagging behind smaller ASEAN countries like Singapore and Malaysia in tourism development. In 2015, the country recorded only less than 10 million foreign tourist arrivals as against Singapores 15 million and Malaysias 27 million .

Indonesia is no less beautiful , in fact the countrys natural beauty is much superiors than the two countries but failed to promote and take advantage of its natural wealth.(*)

Reporter: Budi Setiawanto/A. Saragih
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016