Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno will make adjustments to the development strategy for the foreign tourist market and the tourism sector as a whole in anticipation of a potential global recession in 2023.
“Three countries, namely the United States, China and European countries as world economic locomotives, have been mapped to face a recession so that their economies will slow down. The threat of a recession is expected to affect a number of countries that are Indonesian foreign tourist markets,” said Sandiaga when contacted by ANTARA, Tuesday ( 24/1).
He explained that the adjustment of focus would be directed at countries that had so far shown extraordinary interest in Indonesia, such as India, Australia and New Zealand.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy will adjust the focus of the foreign tourist market to countries that are big markets, where currently the number of tourist visits to Indonesia is showing an extraordinary increase, namely India, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Malaysia and Singapore which are still growing,” he said.
In addition to the foreign tourist market, Sandiaga emphasized that the domestic tourist market (wisnus), which has so far also been a potential backbone of the tourism industry, will continue to be addressed in terms of services.
Therefore, local tourism activities will continue to be empowered such as culinary tours, shopping tours, healing tours and tours in tourist villages that can grow the economy in the region.
“Indonesia will still grow by around 5 percent. Of course, we must focus on encouraging the movement of domestic tourists to reach the target number of 1.2 billion to 1.4 billion. We will strongly encourage the movement of domestic tourists,” he said.
Not only that, Sandiaga also said he would focus on MSME business actors (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) in an effort to maintain employment and strengthen people’s purchasing power and encourage improvement in the aviation industry.
“We will focus on MSME business actors in an effort to maintain employment and strengthen people’s purchasing power, including tourism products and the creative economy (parekraf) because around 97 percent of employment is created by MSMEs, while 70 percent of parekraf business actors are MSMEs,” said Sandiaga.
He also believes that Indonesia’s economic prospects remain bright along with an increase in performance after easing activities, even though the threat of a 2023 recession is a concern for the Indonesian people.
“Meanwhile, the tourism and creative economy (parekraf) sectors will create 1.1 million new jobs and 4.4 million quality jobs in 2024, which will certainly strengthen the Indonesian economy,” he added. (mhn/bbs)
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