Looking to restore tourism in 2022, govt prepares Rp9.2 trillion budget
This article has been translated by PwC Indonesia as part of our Indonesia Infrastructure News Service. PwC Indonesia has not checked the accuracy of, and accepts no responsibility for the content.
Investor Daily - Pulihkan pariwisata 2022, pemerintah siapkan anggaran Rp9,2 triliun
28 September 2021
By: Triyan Pangastuti and Arnoldus Kristianus
Jakarta – Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, revealed that, to support the recovery of the tourism sector next year, the government has allocated a budget of Rp9.2 trillion. This fund will be used to finance the development of tourism and creative economy from downstream to upstream.
“The budget allocated reaches Rp9.2 trillion for next year,” the Finance Minister said during the national working meeting (Rakernas) of the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry in Jakarta on Monday (27/9). The fund for the national tourism sector recovery includes Rp6.5 trillion from the central government expenditure and Rp2.8 trillion from the transfer to the regions budget.
According to Sri Mulyani, developing tourism and creative economy requires three aspects, namely accessibility, attraction, and amenity. It also requires promotions and participation of private companies. This is important as this is the direction of President Joko Widodo who has ordered super-priority destinations to be able to sustain the economy.
The super-priority destinations are Lake Toba, Borobudur, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo, and Likupang. All of the destinations are expected to be ready to welcome tourists. “So, if there is a relaxation and foreign as well as domestic tourists are allowed [to visit], they will be ready to receive the tourists,” he stated.
Meanwhile, there is a budget of Rp7.67 trillion to recover tourism this year with programs such as, Bangga Buatan Indonesia worth Rp200 billion, the filming stimulus worth Rp266 billion, as well as stimuli for health facilities and health workers to handle Covid-19 worth Rp298.6 billion.
“Some are very specific. This is how we recover our tourism market through a tourism rebranding and how we make the tourism world resilient. We will continue its implementation,” he affirmed.
During the occasion, Deputy for Economic Affairs of the National Development Planning Ministry/Agency, Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, said that the government was allocating a physical special allocation fund (DAK) of Rp4.49 trillion to develop priority tourism destinations as well as small and medium industries.
According to her, the development of tourism as well as small and medium industries will be funded by the DAK that is allocated to support national priority destinations using the Thematic-Holistic-Integrative-Spatial (THIS) approach, so the DAK will be supported by various sectors. “After the last approval, the total budget allocation for the DAK reaches around Rp4.49 trillion,” she stated.
In detail, the DAK will be provided for six sectors, namely tourism (Rp431 billion), small and medium industries (Rp753 billion), roads (Rp2.8 trillion), trade (Rp150 billion), environment (Rp171 billion), as well as micro, small, and medium enterprise (Rp135 billion).
The purpose of the 2022 DAK is to accelerate economic recovery and structural reform through quality improvement and more contribution from priority tourism destinations as well as small and medium industries, in line with the 2020-2024 RPJMN (National Medium-Term Development Plan) that is supported by roads, waste management, supporting facilities and infrastructure, as well as business support market.
“We hope that it will be complete when we develop tourism destinations in the regions,” Amalia stated.
She said that the DAK used the holistic concept, so it would be supported by DAKs in road, environment, trade, and integrated service centres (PLUT) sectors. The DAK is prioritised for 10 priority tourism destinations, 7 developing tourism destinations, and 1 revitalised destination. In line with assessment result, the DAK will be focused on 65 regions that are divided into 41 regencies/cities with priority tourism destinations, 19 regencies/cities with 8 developing tourism destinations, and 5 regencies/cities where Bali revitalisation will take place.
“From the process that has been carried out for the last few months, the DAK will be provided for 65 regencies or cities as priority locations,” she said.
Leading sector
Amalia said that, as the leading sector, tourism recovery would also recover other sectors in the tourism value chain. The tourism and creative economy recovery can be focused on tourism destination preparation that is supported by integrated supply chain, food supply, handcraft supply, accommodation, basic infrastructure and connectivity, trade, and financial services.
Sister-village development can be used as a strategy to fulfil provide supply chain for the tourism and creative economy sector in neighbouring regions by strengthening the advantages of each region with a travel pattern or an integrated product/service provision.
The government is also improving synergy between tourism and creative economy where tourism will be an outlet for creative economy products. On the other hand, the creative economy can increase the added value of the tourism sector by providing content, facilities, tourism experiences, design improvements, as well as tourism activities such as events, films, music shows, and performances.
“The concept of tourism value chain is supported by the development of creative economy that is related to the tourism sector. This will improve the synergy of tourism and creative economy. On the other hand, this will improve the competitiveness of our tourism sector, it can even boost exports of creative products,” Amalia concluded.
