BelitongToday, Tanjungpandan – Belitung Regent, Sahani Saleh said Belitung is ready to develop cruise ship tourism to increase the flow of foreign tourist visits to Belitung.
He explained, the potential for cruise ship tourist visits to Indonesia is increasing again after the Covid-19 case slumped.
“In the future, we will prepare a number of facilities and infrastructure in Belitung to welcome cruise ship tourists,” he told BelitongToday, Wednesday (11/23) afternoon.
Regent Sahani welcomed the arrival of 80 tourists on the National Geography (Linbland Cruise) cruise ship at the Belitung Malay traditional house.
In front of these tourists, Sanem, as he is affectionately known, conveyed a number of potentials that Belitung has, namely tourism, plantations, and mining.
“There were even those (tourists) who promised to visit Belitung again later,” he explained.
The Regent said that although the ship tourists’ visit was quite short, it gave a significant meaning.
“The visit of cruise ship tourists is a good experience for us in accepting them. Although they come in short, they discovered something new and unique in Belitung’s culture and culinary,” he said.
He added that the local government would continue to improve facilities to support cruise tourism. One of the current deficiencies, continued Sanem, is the presence of a port.
“There is land that we have freed up in Tanjung Tinggi. We will later build a Marina there to dock yachts and also build a beach club there,” he explained.
He hoped that the increase in visits by cruise ship tourists will increase the income of MSMEs and the local creative economy.
“Because the ship tourists (cruise) are of course those who come from affluent circles and we hope that later the velocity of money in Belitung will be high during their visit,” he said. (Nazriel)