Cabinet Secretariat Holds Coordination Meeting to Discuss Optimizing Tourism Potential

Assistant to the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Investment and Tourism Mohamad Arief Khumaidi opens the Coordination Meeting on Optimizing the Utilization of National Parks as Tourism Destinations to Boost the Community’s Economy After the Revocation of PPKM (Public Activity Restrictions) Policy, Thursday (03/16). (Photo by: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Oji)

Cabinet Secretariat held a Coordination Meeting on Optimizing the Utilization of National Parks as Tourism Destinations to Boost the Community’s Economy After the Revocation of PPKM (Public Activity Restrictions) Policy on Thursday (03/16).

The hybrid meeting was attended by managers of a number of national parks in Indonesia and representatives from Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK) and Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf).

“This coordination meeting aims to discuss how we can utilize national parks as tourism destinations, which is one of the strategic measures to boost the number of tourists,” said Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Investment and Tourism Mohamad Arief Khumaidi.

Arief further added that Indonesia hosts many tourism potentials which could be utilized to boost Indonesia’s economic growth, including the potential of various national parks in the country.

“The President at a limited meeting on February 17, 2020, gave directives to support the acceleration of the national economy through the tourism approach. Tourism is a sector that needs to be promoted as it can be a quick way to restore the economy, since it is mainly related directly to the community,” he said.

The recovery of community activities after the revocation of the PPKM policy at the end of last year, Arief continued, is also expected to boost the growth of the tourism sector as well as its supporting sectors.

“PPKM has been revoked, so we hope that later [the number of] tourists can rise again, especially domestic tourists,” he said.

However, Arief stated that based on the results of on-the-ground monitoring, there are several problems discovered in the optimization of tourism potential, such as issues of licensing and facilities and infrastructure problems found in Way Kambas National Park, Lampung province.

Arief also expressed hope that the speakers and participants of this meeting could provide input to optimize the use of national parks as tourism destinations.

“Our hope is that we can reach a decision for our common interests related to national parks in Indonesia, especially those related to tourism,” he said. (RSF/UN) (FI/LW)