Sandiaga Uno, The 'Savior' Of The Tourism Sector?

JAKARTA - Sandiaga Uno, who was a former rival of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the 2019 presidential election, officially became Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) replacing Wishnutama Kusubandio. That way, the recovery of the tourism sector which was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic is Sandiaga's responsibility from now on.

Yesterday, Jokowi finally announced the reshuffle or reshuffle of the Indonesia Maju cabinet at the Presidential Palace. In his press conference, Jokowi who was accompanied by Vice President Ma'ruf Amin stated that he had decided to replace ministers in a number of positions.

A total of 6 ministerial posts were overhauled by President Jokowi. In addition to appointing Sandiaga Uno as Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Jokowi appointed Tri Rismaharini, who previously served as Mayor of Surabaya, to be Minister of Social Affairs.

The Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) assesses that Sandiaga's new challenges and duties as the new Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy cannot be separated from the recovery of the tourism industry from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only encouraging this sector to survive and recover from pressure, Sandiaga must also be able to bring back investment in the tourism sector.

INACA Chairman Denon Prawiraatmadja said Sandiaga's background was in line with President Joko Widodo's vision to build priority tourist destinations in a number of regions. Because, as a businessman, Sandiaga has the ability to attract investors in the tourism sector in order to develop tourism areas.

"Mas Sandi, from his financial and business background, hopes the government will invite investors," he said, in Jakarta, Tuesday, December 22.

Denon said, if there is a lot of investment in the tourism industry and the value is attractive, it can certainly provide new development routes that are starting to open up for the aviation industry.

Furthermore, Denon assessed that Sandiaga would also find it easier to implement President Jokowi's vision to support the development of five priority destinations, including Labuan Bajo, Likupang, Lake Toba, Mandalika, and Borobudur.

Even so, said Denon, it does not mean that Sandiaga does not have challenges to face. On the other hand, he also mentioned that as the new minister, the challenges would not be separated from controlling the tourism industry which was most affected by the pandemic.

In addition, Sandiaga must also ensure that investors who enter this sector will have business agreements that are profitable and support Indonesia's development.

"Of course, we must first recover the condition of COVID-19. So far the vision of Pak Jokowi's era has a clear blueprint. There are five superior areas. So from Wishnutama to Sandiaga Uno, it is just to continue from the president's vision. This does not mean that the minister changes and then the president's vision must change, "he explained.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Travel Agents Association (Astindo) Pauline Suharno hopes that Sandiaga can show a better performance after being elected as the new Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy.

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Pauline emphasized that what became the hope for the new Menparekraf was to pay more attention to travel agency business actors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Because we are the spearhead when selling and marketing Indonesia abroad. In a pandemic like this, we should also pay attention to it," said Pauline, Tuesday, December 22.

Furthermore, Pauline said, his party should also be interested in providing tourism grants which currently only target hotel and restaurant businesses.

Even so, Pauline acknowledged that the situation and conditions went awry, because Wishnutama's period when serving as Menparekraf was constrained by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"So they haven't had the chance to show their work program yet," he said.

Pauline hopes that the work program that Wishnutama has prepared can be continued by Sandiaga while also paying attention to travel agency business actors.

Menparekraf Sandiga Uno has a concept in running and developing tourism in the country. He is of the view that culture-based tourism will develop massively in the country.

"I just had a discussion with anthropologists. In Indonesia there are still many tourist spots that have not been managed and their potential has not been utilized to create jobs and increase the income of the surrounding community," he said, quoted from his Instagram social media page, which was uploaded December 11. .

Sandiaga said that what the government was doing by encouraging the 10 'New Bali' destinations was very good. But according to him, after COVID-19, we can no longer rely on only 10 New Bali, but other cultural-based destinations should also be encouraged.

"We can no longer rely solely on the 10 New Bali alone, but must be 100 destinations based on culture," he said.

The former Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta said that culture-based tourism must be developed into an industry. However, it is not an industry whose connotations are manufacturing. But it is the industry that can create jobs and drive the economy.

"Because here on the cultural side, on the artistic side. There is no robotics. There is no artificial intelligence or machine learning that can compete with our strengths in this culture-based economy," he said.

"So I'm very optimistic and I think we can have a very exciting future in the tourism industry if we focus on this kind of culture-based tourism," he said.

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