TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno explained the facts of why the country is far behind Turkey regarding the number of foreign tourist visits. According to him, this is related to supporting infrastructure and entry access.

Sandiaga Uno made the statement in a meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission X, answering questions from Commission X member Andreas Hugo Pareira.

In the meeting, Andreas highlighted that international tourists visiting Turkey until December 2022 reached 50 million people. This achievement was far from Indonesia, which until November 2022, only recorded 4.58 million foreign tourist visits.

“Compared to us, this is a very wide gap. This is extraordinary. But that’s okay, we have to keep striving to increase tourist visits to Indonesia,” said Andreas as broadcast online in Jakarta, Wednesday, January 25, 2023.

Responding to this question, Sandiaga argued that Turkey did not reach such an achievement in a short time. The Turkish government, he added, exerted extraordinary efforts to support the tourism sector.

“I underlined that Turkey could surely reach 50 million [foreign tourist visits] in not a short time, but they invested tremendously starting from basic infrastructure, such as airports,” he remarked.

Additionally, Turkey could be accessed easily by land as its position between the continents of Asia and Europe. “Meanwhile, [Indonesia] could only be traveled by land via Timor Leste and Malaysia and that is limited,” the minister said.

Furthermore, Sandiaga Uno asserted that the government continued to encourage quality tourism. In 2023, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry targeted 3.4 million-7.4 million foreign tourist visits.

ANTARA

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