Luhut Is Looking For Deep-pocketed Tourists To Visit Indonesia

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that to restore the tourism sector after the COVID-19 disaster, the number of class C foreign tourists will be reduced.

Luhut said, by reducing that category of tourists, it would provide a larger portion of class A and B tourists to come to Indonesia.

"We want to reduce class C tourists, because from the survey results, the trend is that many tourists are 'in' who will come, because of the cost. Therefore, we must prepare well," he said, in a webinar, Friday, June 12.

Luhut explained that the effort was made in order to increase the amount of state revenue from the tourism sector. Based on his records, the number of domestic tourists contributed 55 percent of income in this sector.

"We will encourage domestic tourists to become 70 percent," he said.

Even though it is still in the early days of COVID-19, the tourism sector is an important part that cannot be ignored. Moreover, the realization of foreign exchange from this sector last year reached IDR 280 trillion and contributed to the national GDP by 5.5 percent.

In order to boost the arrival of domestic tourists, Luhut has also prepared four programs, namely, by creating the In City Activitation, Staycation, Roadtrip, and Epic Sale programs.

Then, said Luhut, his party also encouraged the One Village One Product tourism village acceleration program, namely by displaying creative products made by village communities.

"Around Lake Toba there are 10 villages that we are trying to make as a pilot for One Village One Product. Please the regents around Lake Toba see this and can be helped so that they move forward," he explained.

According to Luhut, the tourism sector can also absorb a large number of workers, reaching 13 million people. He saw North Sumatra as an area that could be further developed.

"I just want to remind you about tourism and the creative economy. I think it is important, because in North Sumatra there are many tourist destinations that we need to develop," he said.

For your information, the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia only reached 16.1 million throughout 2019. Even though it rose 1.9 percent from the previous year, that number missed the initial target set by the government, which was 18 million visits.

Not only 2019, the realization of foreign tourist visits has never reached the target in the last four years. The number is less than 500 thousand and 1 million visits in 2016 and 2017. The shortage is even wider in the following year, namely 1.2 million visits.

This condition was exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID-19 which caused the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to lower the target number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2020.

It should be noted, the criteria for class A tourists are foreign tourists with high expenditure, while class B and C are foreign tourists with medium and low expenditure. These tourists usually come from more developed countries such as Europe, the United States (US), Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Class A and B tourists usually visit Indonesia for at least two weeks by staying at star hotels.

Meanwhile, for class C they are usually students or visiting students with relatively cheaper accommodation. Information about this accommodation is usually obtained through friends who have visited Indonesia or in this case, they are often referred to as backpakers.