JAKARTA: Tourism villages will anchor the industry in Indonesia, as plans are on the cards to develop the communities to better host visitors.
Tourism and Creative Economy Minister, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno said tourism villages were the top choice for visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic, reported Antara news.
For this, tourism villages will be made flagships by the ministry, he said in Central Java on Sunday.
"We are committed to developing tourism villages to be a flagship programme. The democratisation of this tourism is to provide a just tourism benefits that can be felt by the whole community directly," he added.
Sandiaga said through the development of such communities, art and cultural enthusiasts can also enjoy the benefits of tourist arrivals in tourism villages.
On the same day, the minister had also visited Sembungan in Kejajar, Wonosobo which was declared as one of the 50 best tourism villages for the 2022 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI).
Some 250,000 tourists visited Sembungan Tourism Village every year and their visits have a direct impact on the local people, Sandiaga cited.
Meanwhile, Nglanggeran, a village located in Gunung Kidup in Yogyakarta, Java, won the Best Tourism Village Award from the United Nations' World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) last year.
UNWTO granted a total of 44 villages from 32 countries with the 2021 Best Tourism Village Awards.
"All of them stand out for their natural and cultural resources as well as for their innovative and transformative actions and commitment to the development of tourism in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," UNWTO said on its website.