Tourism is an important sector to increase foreign exchange in Indonesia. One of the main reasons is because all the resources are already available. Aside from the abundance of human resources, other resources in the form of area and diversity that can attract tourists can be easily found in Indonesia.
In 2018, the foreign exchange from tourism sector reached US$17 billion. The number of tourists reached 16 million. For 2019, Indonesian government targeting US$ 20 billion for foreign exchange and 20 million visitors. It may sound ambitious, but with the “10 New Balis” project proposed by the Ministry of Tourism, the Indonesian government is quite optimistic to achieve that target. What is the “10 New Bali” project exactly?
The “10 New Balis” project is 10 destinations in Indonesia that are assigned to be “the next Bali”. These destinations are projected to attract many visitors, just like Bali, which successfully attracts 4 million visitors.
The “10 New Balis” includes Borobudur Temple (Central Java), Belitung (Sumatra), Mount Bromo (East Java), Labuan Bajo (East Nusa Tenggara), Lake Toba (North Sumatra), Thousand Islands (Jakarta), Mandalika (West Nusa Tenggara), Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi), Tanjung Lesung (Banten), and Morotai (North Maluku).
These destinations may not as popular as Bali, but each of which offers its own unique scenery—that even Bali can’t provide. Morotai is the perfect example. The land is peppered by dammar forest and the beach has pearl-colored sand. It even has the “three suns” island, Koloray Island.
Indonesia has a huge potential in tourism as the country stands on the stunning archipelago. Then, how did the Indonesian government decide which destinations to include on the “10 New Balis”? Minister of tourism, Arief Yahya, explained that there are three indicators to choose the destinations for the “10 New Balis” project. These include attraction, access, and amenity.
The attraction is about tourist attractions in the destination. Ministry of Tourism strives to “upgrade” the attractions to be international-grade. One of the efforts is by registering Belitung Geopark to UNESCO Global Geopark (UGG).
Access refers to the accessibility to the destination. Some of the destinations are still quite hard to access—moreover if the target is foreign arrivals. To solve the problem, the government builds new infrastructures such as ring road, port, and airport. Also, to improve the accessibility, the ministry of tourism has opened a direct travel route like Singapore-Belitung.
For amenity point, there are some improvements needed like adding more 4-star accommodations. In 2019, this indicator has been fulfilled by some of the “10 New Balis” like Thousand Islands and Borobudur.
Since the announcement of the “10 New Balis” project in 2016, the progress is quite promising. To make the project more focus, Indonesia’s president picked 4 Priority Destinations. The chosen four are Borobudur, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo, and Lake Toba.
The 4 Priority Destinations were chosen since they already fulfilled the 3A (Attraction, Access, and Amenity) indicators. It’s also a matter of time until these four destinations reach the targeted number of investment.
Lake Toba is the perfect example. In 2018, Lake Toba achieved investment of IDR6.1 trillion. The accessibility is also improving. The development of infrastructure keeps on going. One of the results is Kualanamu Highway to the Kualanamu International Airport.
Obviously, “10 New Balis” is a huge project. However, the Indonesian government is still optimistic to make this project successful. Their strategy is to make the investment opportunity as broad as possible, be it direct or indirect, local, or foreign. The most prominent result can be seen on the 4 Priority Destinations. Mandalika is the perfect example since it now becomes Kawasan Ekonomi Khusus (Special Economic Zone). So, are you interested in investing for “10 New Balis”?