Jokowi Criticizes Officials Who Love Vacations Abroad During Global Crisis

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) all regional heads to invite the public to travel within the country to avoid the tourism deficit.

"I entrust tourism. Invite our people, we can have a tourism deficit, not many have come here, but a lot has come out. Be careful, our foreign exchange will run again if we don't brake", said Jokowi, in Jakarta, Thursday. September 29, reported by Antara.

President Jokowi reminded that Indonesia has so many excellent tourist destinations that can be an option for the community, rather than having to take a trip abroad.

The President gave an example of some of these tourist destinations, including Bali, Labuan Bajo, Wakatobi, Lake Toba, Raja Ampat, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, Yogyakarta, Bangka Belitung, and Borobudur.

"Be careful, once again, please invite the public, Mr. Governor, Regent, Mayor. Just invite people to travel within the country, agree?" said President Jokowi who was immediately answered by a chorus of the agreement by the regional heads present.

President Jokowi even mentioned the trend of traveling abroad, especially those carried out by officials.

"Why are people in a global crisis flocking abroad, showing off on Instagram? Moreover, officials!", said President Jokowi.

"I was invited abroad maybe 2-3 times I really stopped this, is there any concrete benefit? Because money goes out for things like that, we also tell the people to use domestic tourism only", said President Jokowi.

According to data published by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on September 2, from January to July 2022, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia reached 1,273,596 people. This figure is an increase of approximately 49 percent compared to the number of foreign tourist visits in the same period last year (year on year/YoY) of 853,073 people.