TOURISM and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno on Wednesday (01/25) outlined a number of achievements of the tourism sector in 2022, such as the number of foreign tourist visits exceeding the government’s maximum target.
At a working meeting with Commission X of the House of Representatives (DPR) here on Wednesday, he said that as of November 2022, international tourist arrivals had reached 4.58 million, while the most optimistic target set by the government was 3.6 million.
The number of domestic tourists visits also reached the target of 633 million. In addition, Indonesia managed to rank 32nd out of 117 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index 2021 released in May 2022, ahead of Malaysia and Thailand.
“We have created more than three million new jobs in 2022. In 2022, the total number of workers in the tourism sector was 22.89 million and in the creative economy sector, 23.98 million,” he noted.
Furthermore, the foreign exchange earned from the tourism and creative economy sectors was recorded at US$4.26 billion as of November 2022, or almost 2.5 times the target of US$1.71 billion.
“The tourism sector’s GDP (gross domestic product) contribution target of 3.6% was also achieved. The export value of creative economy products, which was projected to reach 25.33% (of Indonesia’s total exports), reached US$24.8 billion as of November 2022,” Sandiaga informed.
Meanwhile, he continued that the added value of the creative economy sector reached the target of IDR1,236 trillion. The overall realization of the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry’s 2022 budget reached IDR3.49 trillion as of January 17, 2023, or 97.13% of its budget ceiling of IDR3.59 trillion.
According to the type of programs, the realization of the budget allocated for tourism and creative economy programs, vocational education and training programs, as well as management support programs has reached 98.14%, 97.1%, and 95.5%, respectively.
Meanwhile, based on the type of expenditure, the budget for working units was realized 97.8%, tourism authority boards (BPO) 93.8%, the higher education implementing unit (UPT) 96.4%, and assistance tasks 92.7%. [antaranews/photo special]