Samuel Wattimena: Tourism Villages Must Complement Each Other

Member of Commission VII of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) Samuel Wattimena has stated that existing tourism villages should complement each other with their respective advantages and shortcomings. “Tourism villages do not need to have 10 or more excellent features, but it is enough to have 2-3 standout aspects that are properly packaged,” he said in Semarang on Sunday, during the activity “Dissemination of Archipelago Tourism Promotion Strategies in the Digital Era: Better Known, More Visited” held by the Ministry of Tourism. With the advantages they possess, he said, a tourism village can fill the gaps of another tourism village, thereby creating mutual cooperation in building tourism. “So, if my village has advantages in numbers 1, 4, and 7, and another village has advantages in numbers 2, 3, and 5. Well, let’s fill each other’s gaps,” he said. “Each tourism village has its own strengths and each has its own function. If each function works well, then hopefully this teamwork can yield maximum results,” he added. He also highlighted that so far, the development of tourism villages often originates from external encouragement, while internal readiness is still lacking. “Is the inside ready or not? Because often from the outside we are busy promoting, but the inside is not ready, and it eventually backfires,” he said.