Jakarta, March 5, 2023 - The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Menparekraf/Kabaparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno held a meeting with representatives from the Japan Tourism Agency to explore prospects for collaboration in the tourism and creative economy sectors, with the aim of boosting tourist movements between the two countries.
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Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno met with Commissioner Ichiro Takahashi from the Japan Tourism Agency at the Japan Tourism Agency Office on Monday, March 4, 2024.
During the Bilateral Meeting at the Japan Tourism Agency Office on Monday, March 4, 2024, Menparekraf Sandiaga expressed his admiration for Japan's approach in organizing internationally-scaled events such as the Olympics and Taylor Swift concerts. He also praised the quality of Japan's outbound tourism, the implementation of green tourism, and community-based tourism.
"Indonesia has learned a lot from Japan. Especially regarding JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) which promotes the one village, one product scheme," stated Sandiaga.
On the other hand, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga conveyed that Indonesia is currently also continuously promoting prominent destinations outside of Bali such as Labuan Bajo and Yogyakarta. In order to distribute tourist movements more evenly to other regions.
Japan itself is one of the countries with a significant contribution of tourist visits to Indonesia. In 2023, there were more than 220 thousand visits from that country.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy projects that the number of Japanese tourists visiting Indonesia will increase to 500,000 visits by 2024. In order to achieve this target, collaborative steps with the Japan Tourism Agency are necessary. "This will be strengthened by frameworks of cooperation such as Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Japan and Indonesia, which will benefit both countries," said Sandiaga.
To accomplish this, areas of collaboration with Japan can include sharing best practices related to event organization, the development of human resources, especially in the fields of hospitality and tourism, and connectivity. "Through this collaboration, we hope to see an increase in tourist movements and the creation of job opportunities," said Sandiaga.
Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency, Ichiro Takahashi, stated that regarding the development of human resources, he recognizes the exceptional abilities of Indonesian human resources, which can be a basis for future cooperation. Moreover, many Indonesian nationals have been working in Japan, particularly in the hospitality sector.
Furthermore, Japan also learned from Indonesia during the G20 2022 event where Indonesia issued a document discussing Community Based Tourism," he said.
Therefore, Ichiro welcomed the initiative of Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga to immediately create MoC/MoU. Ichiro expressed that Indonesia is an important partner in the tourism sector, with Indonesia being one of the leading destinations in Southeast Asia.
"The Japanese government is also making efforts to enhance tourism cooperation abroad, including with Indonesia," said Ichiro.