VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Tourism and Creative economy Minister, Sandiaga Uno during the Press briefing - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Menparekraf/Kabaparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno appreciated the launch of the Exclusive Catalog "Portraits of Featured Health Service Facilities" as an effort to support the special interest tourism ecosystem, especially health tourism in the country.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga, during "The Weekly Brief With Sandi Uno" at the Sapta Pesona Building, Central Jakarta, Monday (18/12/2023) explained that the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy together with the Indonesian Health Tourism Medical Association (PERKEDWI) are collaborating in health tourism development activities.

"We appreciate the compilation of this exclusive catalog as a reference for finding out the superior services provided by the best hospitals in Indonesia," he said.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga explained that health tourism is a form of special interest tourism which is divided into four subsectors. First, medical tourism to get medical services, where many Indonesians actually go abroad to enjoy them. Second, fitness tourism, namely to get overall fitness, both body, mind and soul.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday, the third is sports tourism or sports-based tourism. And the fourth is MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions) which is specific to medical science.

The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy gave the example of MICE tourism which includes special interest health tourism such as international symposiums on cancer, pediatricians, or international dentist symposiums.

"So in total for health tourism, around 2 million Indonesians have gone abroad and spent a total of IDR 160 trillion per year. So we are aiming to reduce this leakage by working on health tourism segments," he said.

On the same occasion, the General Chairperson of PP Perkedwi, dr. Mukti Eka Rahadian explained that PERKEDWI's concrete form of contributing to the development of the tourism sector is through preparing a catalog which is expected to be able to support a tourism ecosystem that is centered on superior health and medical services.

"We hope that in the future this book will become a reference and model in building medical tourism destinations together with tourism partners. "Next year we are ready to collaborate to create health tourism destinations that are of interest to tourists in the country," he said.

Present to accompany the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy at WBSU both offline and online were echelon I and II officials within the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy/Baparekraf//VOI