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MICRO, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), in addition to hospitals, have the potential to support the development of the health sector, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno has said.
“It is the (implementation) of the wellness tourism concept. We will promote and showcase a number of products from big companies as well as MSMEs, since it turns out that wellness tourism is about democratizing (the development of the) health (sector),” he remarked at the opening of the 2022 International Wellness Tourism Conference & Festival (IWTCF) in Surakarta city, Central Java province, recently.
The event is themed “A Sustainable Strategy for World Tourism Recovery and Growth through Wellness Tourism for All,” which is considered relevant to the current situation. Thus, it will discuss various issues concerning health tourism.
The minister said he expects that the ideas presented at the conference will be utilized to draft the 2022–2026 National Action Plan on Wellness Tourism.
“We should acknowledge that many of our neighboring countries have developed health tourism (earlier than us); however, we will catch up (to their progress),” he added.
However, in the development of wellness tourism, Indonesia is far ahead of other countries, he said.
“(Hence) we must use this opportunity to gather the government, private sector, related associations, media, (as well as) academics to advance wellness tourism,” he added.
Indonesia is believed to be losing about US$11 billion (IDR165 trillion) in potential revenue in the health sector every year because of 200 thousand Indonesian patients preferring to get treated aboard.
Hence, Uno said that the 2022 IWTCF must be used as an opportunity by stakeholders to collaborate with each other, as the event will also enable networking and business matching.
He said he expected the event to not only become a side event of the G20, as it has the potential to draw more stakeholders to cooperate to develop health and wellness tourism.
“We hope that this event will increase awareness about our health tourism, since (in fact) Indonesia already has the services; (they) just need to be promoted,” he added. [antaranews/photo special]
