Speech by the Minister of Tourism Republic of Indonesia at the 2nd ASEAN Development Forum

Arief Yahya, the Minister of Tourism of Republic of Indonesia delivered a keynote speech at the 2nd ASEAN development forum.

Arief Yahya, the Minister of Tourism of Republic of Indonesia delivered a keynote speech at the 2nd ASEAN development forum which is held by the Asia Pacific Daily in Hong Kong on Dec 14th with the theme of “Connectivity through interactions between regions, industries and civil societies”.

Mr. Yahyapointed out that media plays a very important role of ASEAN countries communicating and culture exchanges.

Mr. Yahya said that an ever increasing number of destinations worldwide have been turning tourism into a key driver of socioeconomic progress through export revenues, the creation of jobs and enterprises, and infrastructure development.

He said that the Indonesia government has also established tourism sector as one of the priorities in the national development and set several targets to achieve in the coming years, and the Ministry of Tourism will be focusing on Branding, Advertising and Selling with proportional allocations of the budget.

From now on, Indonesia is also more aggressive in its tourism promotional campaigns, especially in all of its tourism main markets. Joint promotion program with global and local TVs, printed and digital media has also been carried out to support its Branding Advertising and Selling activities. Indonesia also actively participates in tourism mart and exhibitions, sales mission and cultural festivals together with the industries.Mr. Yahya indicates thatIndonesia has 3 main products to offer namely Culture, Nature and Man Made. Culture-based products including heritage and pilgrim tourism, culinary and shopping as well as city and village tourism which contribute 60% to international arrivals. Nature-based products on the other hand including Marine, Eco and Adventure tourism which contribute 35%, while Man made products such as Mice, events, sport and integrated area tourism contribute only 5% to the international arrivals.

He also said that as an archipelago country and an axis of the world’s Maritimes, Indonesia is developing some marine destinations as well as improving its seaport facilities and infrastructures to cater the international cruise ships and yachts.

In terms of policy and regulation facilitations, Indonesia has simplified the procedures for yachts and cruise ships anchored in Indonesia, whichremoved Clearance Approval for Indonesia Territory (CAIT).