House Agrees To Tourism Budget Hike

Medan, N Sumatra (Antara Bali) - The House of Representatives (DPR) has agreed to an increase in budget allocations for the Tourism Ministry to support the government's program to attract more tourists.

"For instance, the budget allocations in 2015 rose to Rp5.4 trillion from Rp2.4 trillion in 2014," member of the House Commission X Sofyan Tan said here on Sunday.

The budget will be further raised in 2016 if the number of tourist arrivals reaches the government-set target of 12 million, he said.

"The budget can be doubled to Rp10.8 trillion," Sofyan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) said.

The House Commission X is aware of the importance of large budget particularly promotion fund to attract more tourists, he said.

 Chief of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita) of North Sumatra chapter  Solahuddin Nasution said he fully supports the tourism budget hike.

"In North Sumatra, because of limited budget fund for promotion and no budget fund for overseas promotion the number of tourist arrivals does not grow as fast as that of neighboring Malaysia," he said.      

Throughout 2015, the North Sumatra Tourism Office did not promote the province's tourism abroad, while Singapore and Malaysia eagerly promoted their tourism industry in North Sumatra, he noted.

The number of tourist arrivals in North Sumatra in the year to  August 31, 2015 reached 154,287, down 8.46 percent from the same period last year. (WDY)