Indonesia Ministry of Tourism is currently prioritizing the development of 10 Indonesia tourism spots as 10 New Bali. The term “New Bali” is an idiomatic expression that expecting the traffic of tourist visitation will be as many tourists as those who come to Bali. President Joko Widodo also expressed support through his speech by saying “Pastikan Kemajuan di Lapangan pada 10 destinasi wisata Nasional” (English: “Make sure the progress of 10 Priority National Tourism Destinations program”) in the 2016 First Cabinet Meeting.
The title of Wonderful Indonesia is formed to invite both domestic tourist and foreigner to visit local tourism destinations. Colorful Garuda as the logo reflected the plurality of the nation. More than 200 languages are spoken, 17.000 islands and 300 races, Indonesia has the real inner beauty for such an archipelago country. The various destinations such as beach, highlands, cave and historical places are available in Indonesia. Those facts authenticate that we have the complete package requirements to be the biggest tourism destination for the universe.
The concern of our Government is proven by prestigious awards that Indonesia got in two previous years i.e. World Halal Travel in 2015 conducted by UEA for category of The World’s Best Halal Tourism Destination (Lombok), The World’s Best Halal Honeymoon Destination (Lombok) and The World’s Best Family Friendly Hotel (Sofyan Hotel).
In 2016 Indonesia grabbed some awards for 12th UNWTO Awards in Madrid under category of Innovation in Public Policy and Governance for Culture and Tourism Banyuwangi Regency Office as The Winner, 1st Runner Up of Innovation in Enterprises: Garuda Indonesia and Coca Cola Amatil Bali Beach Clean-up and 1st Runner Up of Innovation in Non-Governmental Organizations: Yayasan Karang Lestari – Coral Reef Reborn Pemuteran, Bali.
In 2016 Indonesia also brought back home trophy of ASEANTA Awards in Manila, Philippine. The categories were Best ASEAN Tourism Photo titled ‘Morning in Bromo’ by Agung Parameswara, Best ASEAN Cultural Preservation Effort through Saung Angklung Mang Udjo and Best ASEAN Travel Article titled The Perfect Wave by Colour Magazine, Garuda Indonesia.
Mr. Arief Yahya with the team is targeting to build 20.000 homestays in 2017. 1000 homestays will be built separately around 10 priority tourism destinations in the first quarter 2017 as a quick win and each destination will have more less 110 homestays as supporting facility for local tourism.
However, we still have some unfinished homework to do since the vision of Government is creating Alternative Tourism to replace Mass Tourism system. According to “The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness World Economic Forum 2015” Indonesia still needs to improve in several aspects i.e. Tourist Service, Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability.
Often, tourists complain about three major things i.e. transportation, unlicensed tour guide and the garbage. Transportation becomes the most important part for the tourists since they need to have exact access and portal to get to the location they want. When the tourist travels to the city/urban area they’ll meet great traffic everywhere, especially in big cities like Jakarta, Bandung and Bali. They also meet untidy traffic condition where most drivers and bikers in big cities don’t obey the rule in the street and that can cause danger to other people/pedestrians.
Another example when the tourists plan to visit villages, they need to go through bad access due to many unfix roads. Local Government as the representative of the Centre should aware toward all of these. This isn’t one man duty to fix everything, but this is our call and duty to fix every supporting element as soon as possible.
According to the statement by Mr. Ahman Sya, the Deputy of Institutional and Human Resource of Ministry of Tourism, he said that Indonesia needs more tour guides who can speak Mandarin. This is one of basic need to support the establishment and sustainable Responsible/Alternative tourism.
In the end, Government need to fix all the unfinished homework of tourism sector since this homework can absorb new employees and give the jobless to have some certain job. Not only that, this will give advantages for Indonesia in International community also. Other country will think that Indonesia have a good quality of tour guide in different International languages.
(Rizko Fatra)