Tourism vital to Indonesia economy
as transportation infrastructure, health and hygiene, customs, immigration that lie outside the jurisdiction of the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry.
The government has set an ambitious target of 20 million arrivals next year, as against 17 million this year, by accelerating the development of 10 new destinations outside Bali, including Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Riau Islands, Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Flores in East Nusa Tenggara. But infrastructure is only one of the three fundamental pillars of the industry, besides attractions and services.
Fortunately we have beautiful volcanoes, beaches and historical culture with friendly people to amazing man-made structures like Borobudur and other attractions. But we must work harder to improve the quality of services for tourists, notably high spenders from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and China. Good hospitality can overcome a deficit in infrastructure, but not the other way around. Most travelers may tolerate minor infrastructure deficiencies, but they expect excellent service in return.
Given the wide gap in hospitality service quality, the government needs to include the private sector, especially travelrelated businesses, to improve human capital in hospitality, especially in areas lacking significant historical linkages to the hospitality service. For example, good cooperation with international hotel chains could develop a large pool of skilled hotel workers able to provide the kind of services needed by visitors from around the world.
As a nature and culturebased industry, tourism should be among our most suitable businesses because of the multiplier effect, low import-content and labor-intensive nature of its operations. Travel-related businesses such as hotels, restaurants, transportation, handicrafts and cultural shows are all labor intensive, the very kind of businesses needed to absorb the huge pool of job seekers.