Medan Zoo Tiger Dies Again, Sandiaga Reminds Zoo Management Must Be Serious, Ready To Help Investors

Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno with Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution/DOK IST

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno reminded zoo managers to seriously manage the tourist area by paying more attention to animal health and fulfilling the rights of their employees.

"We immediately sent a message to the manager to seriously (manage the zoo) before this protracted impact resulted in the health of animals and obligations to these employees being number 2 number 3 right," Sandiaga said at the Weekly Brief with Sandi Uno event in Jakarta as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 10.

Sandiaga conveyed this when responding to the condition of the Medan Zoo, which reportedly experienced limited costs, making it difficult to buy feed for animals and pay employees.

There were two Sumatran tigers from the Medan Zoo collection that died in the last two months, namely Erha in November 2023 and Nurhaliza in December 2023.

According to Sandiaga, zoos are one of the tourist destinations that are crowded with tourists during the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year holidays. Therefore, good management is the key to attracting tourists more to travel to zoos.

"So the interest of tourists in the zoo, especially the wildlife park, is very high, the key is management," said Sandiaga.

Sandiaga said that the government is ready to help facilitate zoo management because it has the support of investors who want to invest in green tourism or "green tourism" in Indonesia.

"So the government is ready to facilitate, there are many investors who want to invest because of the concept of "green tourism". I already have 3 or 5 interested investors," he said.

Previously, Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution said that his party acknowledged that there were problems in the management of a zoo in Medan City, which is located on Jalan Bunga Rampai IV, Simalingkar B Village, Medan Tuntungan District.

"There is a slight problem with how to cooperate. Yesterday we also tried with Raffi (Ahmad) and Taman Safari to make the management more correct," said Bobby at the end of last year.

The mayor also continues to encourage RANS Entertainment to realize investment plans in developing a 30 hectare Medan Zoo area.

"So far, we haven't said it's just a matter of time. Indeed, we continue to encourage Raffi to keep his promise this year to be built," he said.