Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno Will Strengthen Solo As MICE's Flagship Destination

Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno will make Solo a superior MICE destination. (VOI/Mery Handayani)

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno said he would encourage Solo as a leading destination for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE). This step is also to support tourism development and the creative economy in the city. "We are holding dialogue to improve MICE and also the development of batik in Laweyan Village in order to increase tourist visits, especially the target of achieving job creation of 1.1 million in "This year and 4.4 million in 2024," he said in an official statement, Sunday, December 11. Sandiaga said, Solo City as one of the country's superior MICE destinations has high potential. Moreover, Solo has also proven itself to have succeeded in hosting various events ranging from national to international levels. For example, continued Sandiaga, such as the 48th Congress of Muhammadiyah, Haul Solo 2022, International Wellness Tourism Conference and Festival 2022, and ASEAN Solo 2022 gamers some time ago. "In the future, we can design together with various international activities. We will carry out revitalizations, especially in organizing MICE, organizing activities that are further enhanced to make Solo an international event destination," he said. Therefore, Sandiaga invites the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) of Solo City to collaborate with the government in developing the tourism sector and the creative economy. "We are the ones can make international conferences about batik and this must be an extraordinary concern. KADIN also has a desire to propose the opening of direct international flights of at least some big cities in Southeast Asia, either to Semarang or Surakarta," he said. Regarding batik, the former Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta said the batik industry has great potential and contribution to the country's economy. This is because the batik industry is able to absorb 200,000 workers in 47 thousand batik business units in 101 centers throughout Indonesia. Moreover, said Sandiaga, Indonesian batik is also very attractive to foreign markets, where the export value of batik in 2021 will reach 46.24 million US dollars. "To develop the national batik industry, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy together with relevant stakeholders are preparing standard competence for batik creation. The purpose of the preparation of this competency standard is to improve the quality and competence of human resources for batik entrepreneurs, as well as improve sinergi antara stakeholder dalam pengembangan batik," kata Sandiaga. Karena itu, Sandiaga kembali mengajak berbagai pihak untuk berkolaborasi, terutama KADIN agar dapat mendukung pengembangan batik. "Termasuk mendukung dalam memberikan pelatihan, pendampingan, juga akses pembiayaan," tuturnya.