The 42nd ASEAN Summit Becomes A Forum For Promotion Of Labuan Bajo Tourism

President Jokowi invites ASEAN leaders to enjoy the beauty of Labuan Bajo using a phinisi ship on May 10, 2023. (BPMI Setpres/Laily Rachev)

JAKARTA President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) utilized the ASEAN 2023 Summit as also a forum to promote the Labuan Bajo tourist destination, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

After holding a series of meetings, Wednesday afternoon, May 10, 2023, Jokowi and Mrs. Iriana invited ASEAN leaders to board the phinisi ship. They sat in a circle on the ship's deck chatting with each other while enjoying the sunset atmosphere in East Nusa Tenggara.

On the right, President Jokowi sits Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, while on the left Ibu Iriana sits the wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

In between the conversation, Jokowi provided information that many other good places in Labuan Bajo were favorites of tourists.

There are Rinca Island, Padar Island, Batu Cermin Cave, and Komodo National Park. In fact, before being named the 7 wonders of the world in 2012, Komodo National Park has also been designated as a Biosphere Reserve since 1977 and World Natural Heritage in 1991 by UNESCO.

"Labuan Bajo is also a good place to dive and snorkeling," said Jokowi as written on the Presidential Secretariat website.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was amazed. According to him, he has seen photos of the beauty of NTT, but when he saw it firsthand it turned out to be better. This is the first experience for Lee to visit NTT.

"It feels so good, so far so quiet, very smooth, we are looking forward to seeing the sunset. I'm very happy we can see the sun, I think it's quite spectacular," said PM Lee.

Similar to other ASEAN leaders. The President of the Philippines, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. also admits that Labuan Bajo's natural scenery is very beautiful. This is the right suggestion to clear the mind again after all day of work.

"Indah, the view is beautiful, so we are very worried because when the time comes for us to host ASEAN, we have to do better than this. Indonesia sets a very high standard, we have to compete," said President Marcos.

Prince Abdul Mateen from Brunei Darussalam also believes that Labuan Bajo's natural atmosphere is not inferior to Bali and later there will be more tourists who come.

"We are happy and this is our first time in Labuan Bajo so we are happy to be on this ship seeing a different side of the ASEAN Summit. Yes, it is very good, very relaxed especially after a long day meeting," said Prince Abdul Mateen.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, in the 2010-2019 period, the trend of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia increased rapidly, from only 7 million visits in 2010 to 16.11 million visits in 2019 according to data from the Central Statistics Agency.

However, 41 percent of foreign tourist visits are still heading to Bali. On this basis, the government in 2015 initiated other tourism developments outside Bali in the hope of being able to create equal distribution and economic growth from the tourism sector.

President Jokowi instructed the trend of increasing foreign tourist visits to Indonesia to be a momentum to strengthen tourism and bring in more.

Initially, there were 10 tourist destinations that entered the priority scale. Along with the process, only five places have become super priority destinations, one of which is Labuan Bajo.

"This is a decision that has been taken at the highest level. The President said that if you build focus, look for five that have the potential to become a new Bali. If we have finished these five destinations, we will prepare them again, we will expand them again," said the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno as written on the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy website.

The development of super priority destinations, according to Sandiaga, is carried out comprehensively including the development of accessibility infrastructure, amenities, and telecommunications networks. This includes the development of tourism products, improving the creative economy ecosystem, to preparing human resources (HR) in each location.

"Because this is a super priority, interconnection in terms of infrastructure must be worked on seriously. Such as airports, ports, and land roads. Everyone must have world-class quality," he said.

Through the construction of these 5 super priority destinations, the government until 2024 targets the contribution of the tourism sector in GDP to increase to 5.5 percent, foreign exchange from the tourism sector to 30 billion US dollars, as well as the number of domestic tourists 350-400 million foreign travel and tourists 22.3 million visits.

For Labuan Bajo, improvements have been made since 2020. Starting from the expansion and increase of airports and the transfer of ports. The road improvements were carried out in early 2022. This includes the construction of the Labuan Bajo 'Sp. Nalis'S. 25 km long Tanar'Tanamori and four bridges with a total length of 175 meters.

Currently, Labuan Bajo already has various MICE facilities and infrastructure which are expected to contribute to achieving the target of foreign tourists of 8.5 million this year and the creation of 4.4 million jobs by 2024.

Sandiaga ensured that national class events would be brought to Labuan Bajo. Not only divided into busy seasons, but also in the season where the number of tourists is predicted to decline.

"The ASEAN Summit 2023 is a momentum to accelerate tourism and the creative economy in Labuan Bajo," said Sandiaga.