JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin encourages halal services in tourist locations to attract the arrival of Muslim tourists.
"By providing halal services, it attracts many Muslim tourists, the Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwan also do that," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin at the Yogyakarta Presidential Palace on Saturday, February 4.
Although the government is currently encouraging halal tourism, the Vice President said that there needs to be a distinction between halal tourism and religious tourism.
Vice President Ma'ruf gave an example of visiting mosques, not including halal tourism, but religious tourism.
"If halal tourism visits all existing tourist destinations, only in destinations there are halal services. So actually, so this is often perceived as having to change its destination, when it really doesn't," explained the Vice President.
The halal services in question include the availability of places of worship, halal restaurants and other facilities.
"Not only in Muslim countries, even in China. For example, in China, I've been there, there are regular restaurants, but there are also halal restaurants, there are prayer places, in Korea too," said the vice president.
That is, so halal tourism shows the availability of halal services in tourist destinations.
"There are people who think (tourist destinations) are changed, actually they don't. This needs to be straightened out, and not only in Muslim-majority countries but in Japan, China, Europe, Australia, everywhere," said the Vice President.
Previously, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, said that his ministry was focused on increasing Indonesia's ranking in the "Global Travel Muslim Index" because Indonesia had been thrown from the top three.
Indonesia has won second place from the Global Travel Muslim Index 2022 by getting 70 points. By 2025, he targets Indonesia to be able to get 75 points so that it is expected to overtake Malaysia's position in first place.
In 2020, Indonesia will also become the largest halal consumer market in the world with a contribution of halal consumption of products reaching 184 billion US dollars. In addition, the country also contributes as a producer of halal products.
Currently, several provinces have expressed interest in the development of halal tourism, such as West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), West Java, Riau Islands, West Sumatra, and Aceh. This is intended to capture opportunities for domestic, regional and Middle East tourists.
Sandiaga also mentioned that travelers from Malaysia and Singapore are the most dominant to visit halal tourist destinations in Indonesia. Most of them need services (extension of service) ranging from culinary, fashion, and the sharia economy ecosystem.
The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy also designed several conventions such as the World Islamic Entrepreneurial Summit (WIES) in mid-2023 in West Sumatra.
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