REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR - The government of President-elect Joko Widodo should appoint the right person with requisite skills to take charge of the Ministry of Tourism, Bali tourism observer Ida Bagus Surakusuma stated. 

Ida remarked on Thursday that the minister of tourism must master technical and non-technical matters in order to boost foreign tourist arrivals by two folds in the next five years.

"The tourism minister in the Jokowi-JK government should have the capability to improve the performance of the tourism industry since it is not an easy task to increase the number of tourist arrivals from 10 million to 20 million in five years," Surakusuma, the director of PT Pacific World Nusantara, said in Denpasar.

The Jokowi-JK government plans to double the number of tourist arrivals in the next five years from 10 million to 20 million or an average annual increase of 20 percent. He emphasized that the tourism minister must be able to judge the tourism potential of each region in Indonesia.

"This is important because due to the lack of supporting facilities and infrastructure, not many regions in Indonesia are ready to welcome foreign tourists," Surakusuma added. "Competition among countries in attracting tourist arrivals is very tight, so the minister of tourism should make a strategic breakthrough and work hard to increase the number of tourist visits."

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