Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Tourism, together with other relevant ministries, will set up a work team to handle illegal levies at tourist spots.This was confirmed by the ministry's deputy for industry and investment, Rizki Handyani Mustafa, at the National Conference of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) in Bogor on Tuesday.
She said that cases of illegal levies are still being detected at tourist attractions. According to Mustafa, the ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with the police to address the issue.
To support the implementation of this cooperation, she said, tourism offices need to enter into a similar agreement with the Regional Police in their respective regions.
"We are coordinating with the Ministry of Home Affairs for this, as well as the Ministry of Finance," she informed.
Mustafa said that tourism business associations such as the IPHRI and the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) also need to be involved in efforts to tackle illegal levies at tourist attractions.
She emphasized the importance of law enforcement and the implementation of education programs to improve public understanding of the negative impacts of such levies as part of an effort to tackle the issue.
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Deputy for destination and infrastructure development at the Ministry of Tourism, Hariyanto, earlier said that illegal levies emerge because the level of public understanding of the sustainability of tourism businesses is still low.
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In this regard, he emphasized the importance of law enforcement and the dissemination of information to the public to handle the problem.
"One of the concrete steps is we are ensuring with the law enforcement officers, especially the police," he said.
