Jakarta (ANTARA) - The digital economy is positively impacting tourism and creative economy actors, primarily micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), by bolstering business resilience in the digital transformation era, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, said.
"Digital economy has been proven to have bolstered the business resilience of tourism and creative economy actors, particularly when the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the sector," Uno pointed out, according to a statement released here on Wednesday.
At the “2023 Indonesia Time to Speak Up (ITTSU)” event in Bali on Tuesday (May 16, 2023), the minister said that he is ready to support the launching of Digital Metaverse 5.0 as part of the digital transformation in the tourism and creative economy sector.
The minister noted that the digital economy helped the national tourism and creative economy sector record a positive performance in 2022, with Indonesia's Travel Tourism Development Index (TTDI) that year rising to 32nd place, ahead of Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The contribution of the tourism sector to Indonesia's gross domestic product in 2022 was close to 4 percent, and the value of Indonesia's foreign exchange from tourism reached US$4.26 billion the same year, he added.
Meanwhile, Uno said that in 2023, his ministry is aiming to increase the foreign exchange value from tourism to US$2.07 billion–US$5.95 billion, while tourism’s contribution to the gross domestic product is expected to reach 4.1 percent.
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During the same period, the export of creative economic products is expected to cross US$26.24 billion, and added value from the creative economy sector is expected to reach Rp1,297 trillion (US$87.1 billion), he said. The minister also expressed the hope that the 2023 target will help create 22.4 million jobs in the tourism sector and 22.29 million jobs in the creative economy sector.