JAKARTA - The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) said that the involvement of a public toilet provider company from Switzerland, Mister Loo, was carried out by inviting the startup company to invest in improving the quality of public toilets in Lake Toba, North Sumatra.
Deputy for Tourism and Creative Economy Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) Odo RM Manuhutu in a virtual press conference, Friday, February 19, explained that the government is open to encouraging improvements to public toilet facilities and infrastructure from any party, including foreigners.
"Why Mister Loo? All of our companies are open. Incidentally, there is a Mister Loo who has certain standards, so let's use the best standards, so that domestic or international tourists when visiting spots, at least get excellent service", he said, quoted from Antara.
According to Odo, it is the same as when visiting a mall where there are certain standards, the government wants this to also happen when tourists visit tourist destinations in Indonesia.
"So it looks more like our efforts to increase our index's competitive edge", he said.
In the Travel and Tourism Competitive Index, the quality of Indonesian public toilets is rated low. Even much lower than Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Odo added that the government's efforts to improve the quality of public toilets were also carried out to provide the best service for both domestic and international tourists.
"Of course we do not rule out that there might be something better outside Indonesia that we can sample and then (we) replicate", he said.
Odo explained that improving the quality of toilets in tourist destinations has become the government's attention in order to encourage the development of the tourism sector.
In February 2020, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy also visited 39 points in the Lake Toba destination. At that time, it was found that the quality of public toilets in these destinations was very poor, starting from the absence of water, doors, roofs, to housing the people.
Based on these findings, it was finally agreed to build 10 public toilets on Lake Toba by PT Pertamina (Persero) as an example.
"So the hope is that this public toilet will be a turning point from the previous situation, namely building quality tourism destinations", concluded Odo.
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