MPR Chair Asks The Government To Explain The Increase In Rates For Borobudur Temple Stupa Tourism By IDR 750 Thousand

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BOGOR - Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Bambang Soesatyo, appealed to the government to discuss the increase in tourist rates at Borobudur Temple in a comprehensive manner and provide an explanation to the public.

"The government should be able to comprehensively discuss both the considerations and the objectives, then explain them to the public", said Bambang Soesatyo in a written statement quoted by Antara, Monday, June 6.

Bambang Soesatyo, who is familiarly called Bamsoet, said this was in response to the government's plan to increase the tariff for local tourists to go up to the stupa area of Borobudur Temple, in Magelang, Central Java, to IDR 750,000 per person and limit the number of visitors to a maximum of 1,200 people per day.

As for foreign tourists, the fare is increased to US$100 or around IDR 1.45 million per person.

According to Bambang, the planned rate increase may be to limit the number of tourists who go up to the stupa area at Borobudur Temple to preserve the world's cultural heritage which is one of the seven wonders of the world.

"Borobudur Temple is a historical site and has vulnerabilities and threats of damage, so it must continue to be maintained", he said.

According to him, the government must also explain to the public the tariff of IDR 50,000 will still be applied to tourists visiting the Borobudur Temple tourist area, but not going up to the stupa area.

Bamsoet also reminded the government that the government should openly explain to the public other considerations, apart from preserving cultural heritage, what are other indicators make the government increase the tariff to IDR 750,000.

"So that people can understand the reason", he said.

The MPR hopes that before setting the tariff increase, the government must listen to the input and opinions of the public regarding the discourse on the tariff increase for local tourists.

Bamsoet also reminded that the government will set a tour rate at Borobudur Temple according to the increase that has been set, so that it can monitor and carry out periodic evaluations, to assess whether the number of tourist tariffs to the stupa can help maintain the stupa.

The number of tariffs that will be set by the government, he said, should continue to be reviewed and can be adjusted if the results of the evaluation show that the tariffs are still too high.

On the other hand, he said, the MPR asked the government to invite the community to jointly preserve the cultural heritage of the Indonesian nation, one of which was the Borobudur Temple.

"Inviting the public to understand that special treatment is needed to realize these efforts, but we hope that this will not burden the community, considering that the heritage of Borobudur Temple is one of the historical tours that also needs to be preserved from generation to generation", he said.