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Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno has said that his office is developing tourism villages as a flagship program of the Ministry .

Tourism villages became a favorite choice of tourists amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Uno said here on Sunday

Uno designated Sembungan in Kejajar Sub-district, Wonosobo District, as one of the 50 best tourism villages for the 2022 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI).

"We are committed to developing tourism villages to be a flagship program. The democratization of this tourism is to provide a just tourism benefits that can be felt by the whole community directly," he said.

Sandiaga Uno said that art and cultural actors also enjoy the benefits of tourist arrivals in tourism villages.

He said that some 250 thousand tourists visited Sembungan Tourism Village every year and their visits have a direct impact on the local people here.

Meanwhile, Nglanggeran, a village located in Gunung Kidup District, Yogyakarta Province, Java Island, won the Best Tourism Village Award from the United Nations' World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) last year.

UNWTO granted a total of 44 villages from 32 countries with the 2021 Best Tourism Village Awards.

"All of them stand out for their natural and cultural resources as well as for their innovative and transformative actions and commitment to the development of tourism in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," UNWTO said on its website.

All of the 44 chosen villages scored a total of 80 or more points or more out of a possible 100.

Located on the slope of the Api Purba volcano, Nglanggeran Tourism Village had received an Award from the ASEAN Community Based Tourism (CBT) Awards in January 2017. (Antaranews)