North Sumatra Targets 1,500 Foreign Tourists To Visit By 2022

Lake Toba/BETWEEN ILLUSTRATION

MEDAN - The North Sumatra Provincial Government is targeting the number of foreign tourists (tourists) to reach 1,500 visits by 2022. Currently, tourist arrivals are still weakening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Indeed, the 2022 target is still small because until 2021, there will be fewer visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Head of the Tourism Promotion Section of the North Sumatra Culture and Tourism Office, Dedi Arian Rizki Siregar in Pematangsiantar, quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 16.

North Sumatra BPS data, shows that the number of visits by North Sumatran foreign tourists for the January - October 2021 period is only as much as or a drop of 99.48 percent from the same period last year.

The most foreign tourists who came occurred in March or as many as 57, then May 50, June 38, October 29 people from January which was only 8.

According to him, the North Sumatra Provincial Government is currently trying to promote tourism objects while continuing to improve tourist areas to attract more tourists.

The hope is that the COVID-19 pandemic can subside so that foreign tourists and domestic tourists will recover starting in 2022.

Tourism, said Dedi Arian Rizki Siregar, has many positive impacts on various sectors starting from eating/drinking and transportation so that it has a big role in the economy.

The Director of Supervision of the Financial Services Authority of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Regional Office 5, Sumbagut Untung Santoso, said the OJK encourages the development of the tourism sector by inviting all financial financial services industries to care about tourism.

The tourism sector, he said, made a big contribution in many sectors, including the creative economy, so it must be fully supported.

According to Untung Santoso, banking credit distribution for the tourism sector in North Sumatra will begin to increase in 2021 or already amounting to IDR 4.69 trillion due to the revival of the sector.

The distribution of credit for the North Sumatran tourism sector has increased by 0.39 percent year on year.