REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The government would invite the World Bank to develop tourism in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi. "I've just reported to Mr. Vice President, this afternoon I would call the World Bank and the regents to sit together and formed integrated services. So the work was patchy, in the words of Mr. Vice President," said the Coordinating Minister for Maritime, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, after attending a closed meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the Vice President's Office, Jakarta, on Monday.
According to Luhut, the government would cooperate with the World Bank to provide a capacity building training for human resources for tourism players in South Sulawesi, particularly Tana Toraja. The area became one of the focuses of new destinations in 2017.
In addition, to increase the human resources capacity, the government determined to develop Buntu Kuni Airport to attract more tourists. "Vice President wanted it to be finished this year. With the poor condition, even the number of tourists has doubled," he said.
After the airport was finished, other infrastructure supported tourism, including roads, transport systems, electricity, and hotels and lodging, would automatically be awakened. "So it was an investment effort to create jobs with revenue and benefits was tourism," said Luhut.
Until January 2017, there were 182 thousand tourists have visited Tana Toraja. It was doubled, compared to the same period, ie 90 thousand tourists in 2016.