Jakarta – Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat has asked tourism players to use their creativity to draw tourists, including by conducting tourism events.

“The current condition requires the creativity tourism players in the country to hold attractive events by involving the creative industry in a number of regions,” she said in a written statement received on Tuesday.

According to Moerdijat, the organization of attractive events is important amid the impact of the global recession, which is expected to dampen international tourist arrivals to Indonesia.

She then provided some examples of creative efforts that can be made, such as holding culinary-related events, shopping-related events, or offering trips to tourism villages.

The World Bank has reported that global economic growth will slow sharply to 1.7 percent in 2023, she noted.

She said that this slowdown must be anticipated by the government by prioritizing a number of alternative efforts that can boost the growth of the tourism sector.

Domestic tourists can play a significant role in ensuring that the national tourism sector grows according to plan, she observed.

In addition, stakeholders, both at the central and regional levels, must also support the improvement of creativity in holding tourism events by making policies to support them.

The government must prioritize the security and health aspects when formulating such policies, she stressed.

Moerdijat said that the collaboration of all parties is needed in striving for the growth of the national tourism sector to face the challenges presented by the global recession.

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Angela Tanoesoedibjo, said that her ministry is targeting 3.5 million–7.4 million international tourist arrivals and 1.2 billion–1.4 billion domestic tourist movements or trips in 2023.

In addition, foreign exchange from tourism is targeted to reach a range of US$2.07 billion to US$5.95 billion.

Source: Antara News