VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia has improved its ranking in the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), released in May 2022, by 12 places, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno has informed.

Currently, Indonesia is ranked 32 out of 117 countries.

During a virtual weekly press briefing accessed from here on Monday, the minister said that the improvement was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced tourism actors in Indonesia to implement several innovations to overcome a host of obstacles.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia has managed to grab the eighth position, even surpassing neighboring Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, he noted.

“Asia-Pacific is the region with the second-highest performance of the tourism sector in the world, thus Indonesia’s position can be considered incredible," Uno remarked.

He said he is grateful that in the midst of the pandemic, Indonesia has still been able to get the achievement.

"In the midst of the difficulties we face that make our budget to keep being reduced, we can steadily and significantly increase our rank by 12 places," he highlighted.

The achievement is expected to help improve Indonesia's reputation in the international community, the minister said.

Thus, it is expected that investors will be interested in developing various tourism destinations in Indonesia, especially the five super-priority destinations (DSPs), he added.

The DSPs comprise Lake Toba in North Sumatra province, Borobudur Temple in Central Java province, Mandalika area in West Nusa Tenggara province, Labuan Bajo area in East Nusa Tenggara province, and Likupang area in North Sulawesi province.

Currently, the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is involving several ministries, agencies, and local governments to study the 112 indicators of the 2021 TTCI with a view to further improve Indonesia's ranking in the global tourism index in the future.

"We will also publish our own index version, namely the Indonesian Tourism and Travel Index, to encourage the governments of provinces, districts, cities, and tourism villages (to improve their tourism)," Uno added.  (Antaranews)