"Last night, I was with Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Muhadjir Effendy), at the tourism village event, and an idea popped up. What if we give incentives to tourist villages; facilitate them, so that visits, creative economic products are highlighted more, and domestic tourist visits can increase," he remarked.
He delivered the statement at the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry National Coordination Meeting themed "Inclusive and Sustainable Tourism and Creative Economy Transformation" accessed here on Thursday.
The idea originated from the thought that Indonesian people hardly went on vacations, he remarked.
This is based on a report by PT Aviasi Wisata Indonesia (Persero) or InJourney that states the number of trips by domestic tourists per Indonesian resident is only about 2.6 times a year.
"Truly, Indonesians lack in terms of going on picnics. The studies' result is out. As compared to neighboring countries, we do less healing. Only twice as much, or 2.5 times our total population," he noted.
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Minister Uno observed that tourism villages have the potential to be developed, as they were one of the pillars of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hence, tourist villages spread throughout Indonesia have the potential to encourage the movement of domestic tourists that is targeted to reach 1.2-1.4 billion trips by 2023.
"It would be nice to present this 1.2-1.4 billion movement, and tourist villages can get an additional budget to get additional visits," he added.
Uno revealed that the incentives would be offered akin to how the School Operational Assistance (BOS) funds were allocated to schools.
However, the proposal was still not final and would be discussed further with the Coordinating Ministry. The same is true for the amount of incentive, he stated.
"Later, we will follow up with the coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs. This is just a formulation, so we will submit it separately in 2023," he concluded.
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Translator: Ade Irma J, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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