The achievement has a very significant impact.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno has noted that the development of human resources is one of the obstacles face by many regional Tourism Awareness Groups (Pokdarwis).

Hence, the ministry will add a village institution as a new category to the 2022 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI) contest to encourage the development of tourism human resources., he said while attending an audience with a number of Pokdarwis in Padang City, West Sumatra Province, as quoted from a statement received here on Sunday.

"It is expected to improve the management of various village institutions, including the Pokdarwis," the minister said.

On the occasion, he listened to the aspirations of the Pokdarwis from nine districts/cities in the province regarding the development of tourism villages and creative economy.

He said that the obstacles to human resources development will be resolved through collaboration with other stakeholders, including other ministries/agencies.

Furthermore, he will invite the managers of tourism villages in West Sumatra to participate in the 2022 ADWI.

Currently, the province has the most tourism villages registered at the ministry’s official page of Tourism Village Network (Jadesta).

"There are almost 300 tourism villages (from West Sumatra Province) registered in Jadesta," Uno noted.

Member of the executive board of the West Sumatra Pokdarwis, Yuliza, said that the main obstacles to improve the group's potential was a lack of human resources, tourism village facilities and infrastructure.

Hence, Yuliza expected the ministry to provide various human resources development programs in the province to support the improvement of tourism villages.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Apar Pariaman Tourism Village Pokdarwis Fadel Muhammad conveyed the benefits gained by the community since the village was included as one of the top 50 tourism villages at 2021 ADWI.

"The achievement has a very significant impact. The community involvement is starting to increase and the activities of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially the culinary MSMEs, begin to revive," he stated.

He added that due to the achievement, the government had also established supporting infrastructure, such as public toilets.

Still, he has hoped that human resources development will continue to be carried out since it is the most important thing to support regional development.

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Translator: Baqir Alatas, Uyu Liman
Editor: Suharto
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