According To The Tourism Office, Tourists To West Sumatra Spend A Minimum Of IDR 1.2 Million

Photo by fikry anshor on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The West Sumatra Tourism Office revealed that every tourist who visits the Minang area will at least shop or spend up to IDR 1.2 million per visit.

"This figure is obtained from the results of a study conducted by The Institute of Research and Community Service (LPPM) IPB This means that tourism plays a major role in increasing local revenue and the economy of the community", said Head of the West Sumatra Tourism Office, Luhur Budianda, Tuesday, July 19.

He conveyed this at the Ombilin Sawahlunto Coal Mining Heritage Socialization followed by relevant stakeholders together with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

Judging from the Eid homecoming 2022 at that time, the number of tourists visiting paid tourist attractions in West Sumatra reached more than 1.2 million people for five days on D+1 to D+6.

"This means that if you multiply the number of visitors to a tourist attraction by the money spent on shopping, the money in circulation is more than IDR 1.5 trillion", he said as quoted by Antara.

That's new to the attractions that are paid not to mention the free attractions.

Therefore, from this figure, he sees that the effect of tourism on the community's economy is quite large.

"Tourism immediately makes the community's economy move", he said.

He sees the legacy of the Ombilin Sawahlunto coal mine will have an impact on the economy of the local community.

"Moreover, there are seven regencies and cities that are directly related to the legacy of the Ombilin Sawahlunto coal mine, so the scope of the economic impact is also wide", he said.

The seven related regencies are Sawahlunto City, Padang City, Padang Panjang City, Solok City, Solok Regency, Tanah Datar Regency and Padang Pariaman.

To increase visits to the Ombilin Sawahlunto coal mine heritage, his party carried out socialization to tourism activists from the seven regions so that they could get direct benefits.

He dismissed the view that only the city of Sawahlunto would benefit because tourism was not compartmentalized and influenced each other.

"The Sawahlunto coal mine will also be linked to supporting cities that encourage the presence of the mine", he said.

Moreover, earlier in early July 2022, four SOEs namely PT Kereta Api Indonesia, PT Bio Farma, PT Pupuk Indonesia, and PT Semen Indonesia kicked off the Improvement of Railway Infrastructure and Facilities to Support the Reoperation of the Sawahlunto - Muaro Kalaban Railway, at Sawahlunto Station.

"This is the starting point that the legacy of Ombilin's coal mine is also related to other regions, so collaboration from all parties is needed", he said.