Acting (Plt) Head of the Riau Islands Tourism Office (Dinpar) Luki Zaiman Prawira said data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) for the January-July 2022 period showed that the number of foreign tourist visits to Riau Islands increased to 175,000 people. "Following the advice from the government regarding the implementation of restrictions on community activities (PPKM), from January to March 2022, the number of tourists still has not shown an increase. "However, over time, April 2022, the visit of foreign tourists from Riau Islands began to increase to 80,000 people or the largest compared to the previous month," explained Luki in his press statement, Monday (10/10/2022). Seeing the potential, Luki continued, The Riau Islands Provincial Government (Pemprov) also continues to encourage the emergence of investment in the economy and tourism by making a master plan.
The Riau Islands region has the potential to be developed in the tourism sector and has the opportunity to become an investment field for the Riau Islands. The area developed as a leading tourism zone is divided into three Free Trade and Free Port Zones (KPBPB) or Free Trade Zones (FTZ), namely Batam, Bintan and Karimun, as well as special economic zones. In addition, Pulau Bintan Resorts succeeded in proving as a thriving tourism sector by receiving an award from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) at the World Tourism Day 2022 event in a series of Group of Twenty (G20) meetings in Bali, Tuesday (27/9/2022). ). "Obviously, the government's role in encouraging investment and this Riau Islands opportunity has the potential to promote regional tourism. This greatly advances Riau Islands tourism in accordance with the planning of the Riau Islands Dinpar to maximize foreign tourist visits to Riau Islands in 2022," said Luki.
