Jokowi Launches Promotion Of Indonesian Tourism-Malaysia-Thailand

President Jokowi/PHOTO: BPMI And ASEAN2023 HOST PHOTOGRAPHER via Instagram Cabinet Secretariat

LABUAN BAJO -Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Visit Year 2023-2025 is launched at the 15th Summit of subregional economic cooperation in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara.

President Joko Widodo said the pandemic had disrupted the world tourism sector, which even reduced the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand tourism sector to more than 90 percent.

"Alhamdulillah, since last year, the tourism sector has started to bounce back. The movement of international tourists has reached more than 900 million and will certainly continue to grow," Jokowi said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, May 11.

He assessed that Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand must move quickly to take advantage of this opportunity.

Jokowi emphasized three things that need to be focused, namely improving infrastructure, especially connectivity, strengthening innovative branding, and developing digital tourism to improve services.

"This is all to strengthen a strong, inclusive, and sustainable tourism ecosystem," said Jokowi.

IMT-GT is an economic cooperation framework that was formed to improve the welfare and economic growth of the people in border areas of IMT-GT countries.

The regions of Indonesia that are part of the IMT-GT collaboration are Aceh, Bangka Belitung, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, South Sumatra, Riau, Riau Islands, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

The IMT-GTVisit Year campaign was launched to encourage tourism recovery in several regions, as well as to raise awareness about IMT-GT as a single destination.

For Indonesia, as Chair of the IMT-GT for Tourism, this campaign is also useful in encouraging tourism recovery and marketing of tourism destinations, especially in ten provinces in Sumatra.

This is an opportunity for Indonesia to promote two priority destinations in Sumatra, namely Lake Toba in North Sumatra and Tanjung Kelayang in Bangka Belitung.

This campaign is also one of the efforts to promote new destinations and is less explored in Sumatra.