Tourism villages have the prospective to become key drivers of Indonesia’s tourism growth and encourage the development of small- and medium enterprises across the archipelago, as opined by the country’s industry players.
Speaking at a recent national dialogue on tourism organized by the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI), Irfan Wahid, coordinator of Quick Win Team at the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investments, said that a tourism village strategy can emerge as a powerful tool in the development of the 10 New Bali’s in Indonesia.
The strategy, which Irfan recently proposed to President Joko Widodo, encourages the government to create 1,000 digital-based tourism villages annually across the archipelago to take pride in culture, ecotourism destinations, as well as agricultural, horticultural and aquatic products.
Irfan said: “A four-legged table will crack if a very heavy load is placed on it. But if it has a thousand legs, it will be much stronger. For me, a tourism village is a leg. The more, the merrier. A tourism village will empower small and medium enterprises. We target one village to focus on producing one export-oriented commodity.”
“The more tourism villages we have, the more tourist spots we can develop together,” Irfan said.
Tourism villages can showcase the uniqueness of each village, thereby attracting more visitors.
There should be stricter enforcement of homestay owners needing to get a Tourism Business Registration License (TDUP), since it is a regulation that hospitality players have to comply with because it also entails safety measures. It ensures safety of tourists who stay in unlicensed homestays.
Umberto Cadamuro, COO inbound of Pacto, said that the government should prevent saturation of homestays to prevent diminishing of occupancy rates.
He said that the Indonesian government should train homestay owners in tourism villages to go digital, and help facilitate affiliation with accommodation booking platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb so that visitors can resort to online bookings.
