The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry and Sragen district government, Central Java, have inked an agreement under which the local government will provide 200,875 square meters of land for the establishment of a state tourism polytechnic.
“If God wills, we will start the (development) process today. In the next few years, we will plan to invest up to Rp400 billion (US$27.25 million),” Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno informed during a weekly press briefing, accessed from here on Tuesday.
Earlier, the ministry had sought collaboration with various parties to increase human resources in the tourism and creative economy sectors to support the development of the Borobudur Temple Super Priority Tourism Destination (DSPS) in Magelang district, Central Java.
“Many hotels, creative economic centers, restaurants, and cafes have been built around the DSPS, but the area does not have adequate qualified human resources,” the minister said.
Hence, his ministry has held several discussions with leaders in the province over the past few years regarding increasing the number of quality local tourism and creative economy human resources in the area.
Eventually, the head of Sragen district, Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati, offered the land for the development of the polytechnic, Uno said.
“Hence, the establishment of the polytechnic in Sragen district will support the development of Borobudur Temple DSPS in Magelang district,” he remarked.
The state tourism polytechnic will also aim to improve the knowledge and quality of services of local tourism and creative economy actors considering that there are still instances of people duping tourists in tourist sites.
Uno said that his ministry will open collaboration between the polytechnic and business actors in the future adding, a similar attempt has been made at several other state tourism polytechnics.
Furthermore, since the distance between Sragen and Magelang districts currently takes about one and a half hours to cover, the central government will build a toll road and other supporting infrastructure to reduce the travel time, he added.
Source: Antara News