Indonesia has role in tourism development in maritime silk route

Indonesia has an important role and can take advantage of tourism development in the maritime silk route of the 21st century in China, according to China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Information Center Director Cai Jiacheng.

“Indonesia has its own uniqueness as a global tourist destination, especially for the countries along the maritime silk road of the 21st century in China,” Jiacheng told.

According to him, Indonesia has a lot of cultural diversity and unique and attractive natural sceneries that can make the country a world tourist destination.

“However, Indonesia must fix the infrastructure and build good connectivity with a number of other countries, particularly with countries along the maritime silk road,” Jiacheng noted.

“Indonesia should actually be able to provide maximum services, ranging from easing visas and providing adequate infrastructure, including connectivity, to attract tourists to come to the country,” he added.

Jiacheng added that Chinese travelers can visit other countries through the ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

“Therefor e, Indonesia has opened the path for China to ASEAN, because of its strategic position to support tourism development in the maritime silk road of the 21st century that can also provide a great advantage for the country,” he said.

Tourism is playing an increasingly important role in the economic growth of China. Tourism sector accounted for about 10.8 percent of the total growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10.2 percent of the national job last year.

CNTA is targeting 137 million foreign tourists to visit China in 2016, or up to 2.5 percent compared to that of the previous year, while the amount of targeted revenue from foreign tourist arrivals is US $ 121 billion, up by 6.5 percent over the previous year.

“Therefore, China is serious to work on the tourism sector by using destination packages, connectivity, and the use of information technology for marketing and promotion,” he said, adding that Indonesia can take advantage of the tourism development in the maritime silk road of the 21st century.