ER
THE WEST Sumatra Provincial Tourism Office recorded that the number of tourist movements in Ranah Minang reached 10 million people, with the most dominant tourist destinations spread over 6 districts and cities.
According to the head of West Sumatra Tourism Office, Luhur Budianda, recently said that the number of tourist movements in West Sumatra showed an increase from time to time, with a percentage of 9.31% compared to the previous period. However, this percentage still needs to be increased to reach the target of 13.5 million tourists in 2024.
“The Tourism Office hopes for the support of all parties, both related agencies and the community, to increase tourism so that the target of 13.5 million tourists coming to West Sumatra in 2024 can be achieved,” he said.
Luhur explained that out of the 10 million tourists, domestic tourists dominated, where Riau tourists were recorded as the most frequent tourists to West Sumatra, namely 14.86%, followed by tourists from Jambi 5.25%, North Sumatra 3.42%, West Java 2.51% and DKI Jakarta tourists 1.83%.
“Thus, from January to September 2024, we found that there were 6 destinations that were most visited by tourists. The 6 most visited destinations by tourists were Padang City 22.61%, Bukittinggi 9.39%, Agam 8.26%, Lima Puluh Kota 7.49%, Padang Pariaman 6.96%, and Solok Regency 6.12%,” Luhur affirmed.
Then the number of foreign tourists who came to West Sumatra was 47,419 people. The countries of origin of the tourists were Malaysia which was the most dominant, namely 73.30%, Australia 4.17%, France 1.64%, Singapore 1.63%, and tourists from the United States 1.10%.
“These foreign tourists entered West Sumatra through the Minangkabau International Airport, with a total of 116 flights from January to September 2024. That’s the data from PT Angkasa Pura at BIM,” he noted.
He also hopes that the New (Nataru) 2024 Christmas and New Year’s holidays can achieve the target of 13.5 million tourists and even exceed the target. In addition, in terms of flights, there have been several direct flight routes from various regions in Indonesia, such as recently Padang-Semarang.
Strategy to increase the number of tourists in West Sumatra
In order to increase the number of tourist visits, the Pesisir Selatan Regency Government has taken steps to involve business players in the tourism sector to help promote tourist destinations through digitalization.
According to Head of the Pesisir Selatan Youth and Sports Tourism Office, Suhendri, said that the area nicknamed “Land of a Million Charms” is important to implement various promotional strategies not only from the government side, but also to embrace tourism sector business actors.
“In Pesisir Selatan, there are quite a lot of business actors in the tourism sector, there are photographers, travel agents, influencers and others. We see what they have been doing so far, it is good, but it needs to be maximized even more and present to provide training,” he added.
Suhendri explained that in this era of digitalization, many parties and many countries can easily access the conditions of a region. Likewise, in Pesisir Selatan, which has various tourist destinations, it is necessary to present and prepare what prospective tourists need to know more about the tourist destinations in Pesisir Selatan.
He added that Pesisir Selatan area is the most important part of the tourism world in West Sumatra because it has tourist destinations that can attract tourists.
For example, for marine tourism, Pesisir Selatan has Mandeh Marine Tourism. In Mandeh, it is not only focused on one point of the area that can be visited, but the whole Mandeh area can be visited and is worthy of being a tourist attraction.
“There are many islands in the Mandeh area. Please visit them, access is already available by boat. There are also accommodations and restaurants in the Mandeh area,” he explained.
In addition, Pesisir Selatan also has the Root Bridge Tour, and this tourist destination is actually nothing new. But now, the Root Bridge is still interesting to visit, apart from seeing the uniqueness of the bridge made of roots, visitors can also play in the water in the river current, which is so cool.
“There are many other tourist destinations in Pesisir Selatan, and the most popular one is Carocok Painan Beach. Thousands of visitors come to Carocok Painan,” he said.
On the other hand, the Pesisir Selatan Regency Government sees that if the promotion of digitalization is not intensified and only lulled by the nickname of the land of a million charms, then there is a possibility that tourist destinations in Pesisir Selatan could lose out to other regencies and cities in West Sumatra.
“In West Sumatra, there are many tourist destinations, some are spread in Limapuluh Kota Regency, Solok, especially in Bukittinggi City. That’s why we want Pesisir Selatan to be a tourist destination, both domestic and foreign tourists,” he concluded. [bisnis.com/photo special]
