From Paper Ticket Stubs to E-Ticketing: Accelerating Digitalisation in National Parks

Minister of Forestry (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni has launched the ‘Ayo ke Taman Nasional’ application. The launch of this application represents an effort at digital transformation while making it easier for the public to access information and visitation services for national parks throughout Indonesia. The launch was conducted as part of the opening of the Indonesia Outdoor Festival (INDOFEST). Raja Antoni revealed that Indonesia has 57 National Parks and 143 Nature Tourism Parks, where visitation trends continue to increase annually. “Visits to National Parks always rise each year. This shows an encouraging trend that our children not only like going to malls, not only lazing about playing on their phones in their respective rooms, but outdoor activity has become a mainstream activity that increases every year,” said Raja Antoni at INDOFEST, Jakarta. He emphasised that the Ministry of Forestry has a responsibility to ensure that conservation areas visited by the public provide a safe and comfortable experience. Raja Antoni also highlighted the importance of digital transformation in the management of national parks. He revealed that when he first took office as Minister of Forestry, the ticket sales system in a number of conservation areas was still done manually with a paper stub or ticket roll system. “One and a half years ago when I entered the Ministry of Forestry, the ticket system was still a tear-off system. I felt this was ineffective, inefficient, as well as being untransparent and unaccountable,” he said. Therefore, Minister Raja Antoni continued to push for the acceleration of service digitalisation, to date, 93 per cent of National Parks have implemented an electronic ticketing system. In addition, the Ministry is also continuously overcoming various infrastructure obstacles in remote areas through the use of technology. “Now we have implemented e-ticketing in 93 per cent of our national parks. There are still a few places experiencing internet and electricity constraints, but we are looking for the most efficient technology, including the use of solar panels, so that even in the most remote places we can offer better e-ticketing services,” said Raja Antoni. Through the Ayo ke Taman Nasional application, the public can purchase National Park entry tickets, obtain destination information, and access various services in one integrated platform.