Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan outlined several strategies of the government to drive recovery of the tourism and creative economy sectors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While opening the 2021 Tourism and Creative Economy National Coordination Meeting held virtually and observed from here on Monday, Pandjaitan stressed that this is especially important on account of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected scores of economic activities.

The minister stated that one of the strategies was the Proud of Indonesian Products National Movement (Gernas BBI) that had been campaigned since last year.

As of July 2021, some 15 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) had migrated to a digital platform through the Gernas BBI campaign.

This year, the government is also marketing the Proud to Travel in Indonesia #DiIndonesiaAja movement that will target the domestic market.

“This strategy needs to be strengthened, starting from targeting the domestic markets since it is from these markets that the recovery of national tourism will begin,” Pandjaitan expounded.

The minister stated that the government was collaborating with several stakeholders to promote Indonesia’s culinary arts through the Indonesia Spice Up The World campaign.

Through this campaign, the government aims to export spices worth US$2 billion and establish four thousand Indonesian restaurants abroad by 2024, Pandjaitan stated.

“We are also preparing the best concept for medical tourism in tourism destinations,” he noted.

Within the games industry, the coordinating minister highlighted that the potential of the game industry in Indonesia had reached US$2 billion. He then encouraged the games industry to offer a bigger contribution.

“This is primarily for local gaming, so that it could grow domestically. I am optimistic that the Indonesian youth would come up with new innovations in video games,” Pandjaitan stated.

Source: Antara News