VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

 Indonesia is expected to rank first in terms of global halal tourism and as a Muslim tourist-friendly destination, according to the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) in 2019. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on Thursday that Indonesia targeted to take the lead in the world`s halal tourist destinations this year, owing to its halal tourism growth.

"Our halal tourism growth is projected to reach an all-time high of around 42 percent this year," he stated.

For its part, the Tourism Ministry has set the target of halal tourist arrivals in the country for this year at 5 million, up 42 percent from 3.5 million a year earlier, he noted.

"The target of 5 million halal tourist arrivals makes up 25 percent of the target of overall tourist arrivals for this year at 20 million," he added.

To achieve the target, the ministry will use Indonesia Muslim Travel Index (IMTI) as a work standard to develop the country`s halal tourism in pursuit of first place in GMTI 2019 to be announced in April 2019, he remarked.

"We have IMTI 2019, which adopts GMTI standards to emerge as the best halal tourist destination in GMTI 2019," he explained.

Yahya noted that the development of halal tourism in the country has so far referred to GMTI 2019, which applies 14 components in the criteria of ACES (Access, Communications, Environment, and Services) with different scores. Access has a score of 10 percent, Communications 15 percent, Environment 30 percent, and Services 45 percent.

"In total, nearly 90 percent is service components and 10 percent is halal component. We strive to increase all the components through IMTI," he revealed.

He expressed hope that Indonesia will be the best after the country and United Arab Emirates finished second last year, with a score of 72.8 out of 100. Malaysia remains atop as the best halal tourist destination in the world, according to GMTI. (ant)

Ten Indonesian students and one Indonesian school received awards in "the 2019 Lidice children fine art competition” from the Czech Republic government. The awards were given by the Czech Republic Ambassador to Indonesia Ivan Hotek, Thursday (14/02/2019) at the residence of the Ambassador of Czech Republic in Jakarta. More than 20,000 art works by children from 79 countries were entered in the competition this year. From Indonesia, out of 336 entries that took part, only one student received The Medal whereas nine other received the Honorable Mention. The Medal was awarded to Kennard Alvaro Hadinata, the student of Nirvana Visual School, Surabaya,  East Java.

“So, as I said, this competition was created to commemorate victims of the second world war in the Czech village Lidice. And, to commemorate to all of us that usually during each conflict, the most suffering people are ladies and children. And, that is why we have to do everything in this modern world to prevent conflict. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, if you are Muslim or if you are Budist. In the end, everyone suffers the same,” said Ivan Hotek.

In addition to ten Indonesian children receiving the awards from the competition,  one Indonesian school,  Fajar Hidayah Islamic school was awarded a plaque of acknowledgement for their work in helping educate orphaned children. The ambassador asked all participants to re-enter the competition next year and encourage their class-mates to do the same. (VOI/LISA/AHM)

Halal tourism is now becoming a mega trend and is projected to develop in the future. The target of 20 million tourist visits to Indonesia is one of the triggers for the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism to improve halal tourism facilities. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the Indonesia Muslim Travel Index 2019 at the Ministry of Tourism Jakarta, Wednesday, February 13, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said, the number of world Muslim tourists who visited Indonesia in 2018 was 20 percent of all tourists who came to Indonesia. The ministry has also made some assessments on the halal destinations in Indonesia.

“With 14 aspects, smaller aspects, number one is access. ACES stands for access, communication, environment and services. I let you know the trick first if you want to win the competition. The percentage is different. The big one is services (45). We repair the large percentage. From there I may say, 90 percent is not directly related to sharia, all of them are general in nature. So I dare say who can provide the best service, he will win the competition. Only a small percentage of them have sharia,” said Arief Yahya.

The Ministry of Tourism believes that the strength of halal tourism in Indonesia lies in the readiness of the destination to be the destination of visits by global Muslim tourists. Tourism destinations must be able to meet the needs of Muslim tourists while traveling. (VOI/NK/AHM)