It is time for tourism to be Indonesia foreign exchange mainstay

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the government is re-confirmed the mainstay of tourism as a sector with a leading for foreign exchange earner of Indonesia. It is set at a special closed meeting of tourism at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Monday (02/16/2015) at the opening of the National Conference of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants Indonesia, Tuesday (02/17/2015).

"The impact of such determination, when the region is set to be a national strategic areas, the sector would support the plan for example the Ministry of Public Works will fix the roads," he said.

He added that Indonesia actually has advantages in terms of tourist destinations, competitive tourism prices , and tourism priorities. While on the other hand, Ariel revealed by the data of "Travel and Tourism Competitive Index" compiled by the World Economic Forum, Indonesia is in the ranking of 70 out of 140 countries.

"We're going to fix the shortage of tourism such as tourism infrastructure, tourism information and technology, and hygienic" he added.

This, he added, the biggest challenge. It hoped Indonesian tourism will grow rapidly and become a mainstay industry of Indonesia besides oil, gas, and palm oil.