TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said it is time for the country to implement community-based, sustainable, inclusive tourism that has a major impact on job creation.

“Indonesia is no longer pursuing the number of tourist visits, but is rather focused on encouraging sustainable tourism,” said Sandiaga at the 40th Anniversary of the State Polytechnic of Medan as quoted from an official statement in Jakarta, Wednesday, September 21, 2022.

Quality and competitive human resources are necessary to achieve sustainable tourism in Medan City so as to support the development of Lake Toba as one of the five super-priority tourism destinations.

Sandiaga expressed gratitude for the contribution of the education institution, especially regarding the opportunity of providing strong human resources in the tourism and creative economy sector in collaboration with the Lake Toba Tourism Authority.

“There are 7,500 students and more than 800 lecturers and administrative staffers here. Hopefully, this will be a strength for our human resources to excel and be competitive, as well as create 1.1 million jobs in the tourism and creative sector by 2022, let alone Medan is close to Lake Toba which is our priority destination,” the minister remarked.

Indonesia, he further stated, is a global reference on how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the revival of the tourism sector, which is evident from the implementation of World Tourism Day (WTD) on September 28, 2022, which was first held in Bali.

“We also managed to jump 12 places in the TTCI (Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index), surpassing Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam for the first time. Our awakening is no longer from numbers, but from community-based, sustainable, inclusive human resources that have a direct impact on job creation,” Sandiaga Uno concluded.

ANTARA

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