West Sumatra Governor highlights need for holding more tourism events

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

In a bid to boost the number of tourist visits, West Sumatra Governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah has highlighted the need for holding more tourism events and promotion in the province.

“It is also aimed at increasing the occupancy of hotel rooms and the average length of stay of tourists to present an impact on the economic growth of West Sumatra,” he said in Padang on Saturday.

According to Ansharullah, the success of an area’s tourism business is inextricably linked to the amount of tourists that visit the place. Many indicators can be used to track the number.

The hotel room occupancy rate and the duration of stay of tourists, both foreign and domestic, at hotels are two of the indications.

The occupancy rate of star-rated hotels in West Sumatra was 58.62 percent in December 2022. Two-star hotels saw the greatest rise in occupancy rate (5.25 percentage points), followed by one-star hotels (1.42 percentage points). Nevertheless, the occupancy rate at three- and five-star hotels fell by 2.36 and 3.98 percentage points, respectively.

The average length of stay for international and Indonesian tourists in West Sumatra in November 2022 was 2.31 days, up 0.75 days from the previous month.

Through its Visit Beautiful West Sumatra (VBWS) campaign, the West Sumatra provincial government hopes to attract 8.2 million international and domestic tourists in 2023.

Previously, Luhur Budianda, head of the Tourism Office of West Sumatra, stated that the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a considerable decrease in tourist visitation to the area.

Before the epidemic, 8.2 million foreign and local tourists visited West Sumatra. However, during the pandemic, the number fell by nearly half.

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