Indonesia Ranks 9th as Safest Country for Tourism

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Gallup's Law and Order Report data in 2018 has showed that Indonesia ranked 9th as a country with the highest level of law and orderliness. Based on that achievement, Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya appreciated the performance of the National Police in improving security in Indonesia.

The data showed Indonesia get a score of 89. Indonesia's security is a level above Denmark and a level below Canada.

"The top position is held by our neighbor country, Singapore with 97 points followed by Norway, Iceland, and Finland which share the same 93 score," Arief said while attending a cross-agency collaboration program for human resource management at the National Police Headquarters on Thursday (Jan. 10).

Meanwhile, Arief also said, in a report on one of the tourist travel sites in the UK, Ampersand Travel, there was an index for the level of security of solo tours for women traveller. In the data, Indonesia became the 5th safest country out of 70 world countries with the top ranking filled by Japan, France, Spain, the United States, and Indonesia.

Arief also thanked the police for being responsive in dealing with the security crisis and the prolifiation of accurate information to the public. Information related to security in the field of tourism in Indonesia was relatively fast, he said.

"For example, in the Thamrin bombing, just within five hours the government could guarantee security to the international community," he said.

According to him, the rapid handling of the National Police gave a positive impression to the international community. For that, Indonesia has received credit and trust from the countries present at the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF) in Manila on January, 18-25 in 2016 ago.

Meanwhile, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said that Indonesia is a country with large tourism potential that requires security assurance. For this reason, he asserted, the police will continue to strive to ensure security and instruct its staff to always be prepared.

"I am very grateful that Indonesia is the 9th safest country in the world. The police have a special element called the Tourism Police. I emphasize to the Regional Police Chief in each regions that they can go recreation to local wisdom in their respective regions, as long as they are within the limits of fairness and can always maintain security," Tito said.

According to Tito, investment in Indonesia's tourism sector was among the cheapest compared to other sectors. However, he said, the impact of tourism was very large to improve the economy.

With the presence of the 4.0 digital revolution it is predicted that it will change all things that can reduce the number of workers. But in the tourism sector, he continued, labor absorption can actually increase.

ANTARA