Ministries Launch Roadmap to Strengthen Tourism Villages

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Regions (Kemendes PDT) and the Ministry of Tourism have agreed to accelerate efforts to strengthen tourism villages across Indonesia, where only 0.5 percent of 6,189 registered sites have achieved independent status.

Deputy Minister of Villages Ahmad Riza Patria announced the agreement after meeting Deputy Tourism Minister Ni Luh Puspa at the Tourism Ministry’s office in Jakarta on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. He said the government would develop a unified concept and syllabus, along with a mapping of each village’s potential, to ensure more effective and efficient implementation.

“We will work on this together. The concept must be easy for villages to implement despite their limitations. We will prepare written and visual guidelines that are easy to understand, as well as a Budget and Cost Estimate (RAB), to ensure village communities are not confused. We will later arrange the financing,” Riza said, as quoted on the Ministry's official website.

Riza emphasized that strengthening tourism villages is essential to national development, citing Indonesia’s abundant natural assets across nearly all provinces. He said the food sector remains a key pillar of development, alongside tourism.

The initiative will continue to involve village facilitators collaborating with local Tourism Awareness Groups (Pokdarwis) and private companies with business experience. The government will also leverage social media to expand promotional outreach beyond local markets to the international level.

According to government data, 78.2 percent of tourism villages remain at the pioneering stage, 16.11 percent are categorized as developing, 5.14 percent as advanced, and only 0.5 percent have reached independent status.

The condition prompted Ni Luh to seek closer coordination with the Villages Ministry to accelerate development, including providing assistance and strengthening the institutional capacity of Pokdarwis, which manage tourism activities at the local level.

“This year, we will create a roadmap for tourism village development so that the process can run optimally and in a more focused direction,” Ni Luh said. She added that tourism villages encompass not only attractions but also micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), homestays, and other related sectors that require assistance and improved infrastructure.

Tourism villages form part of Kemendes PDT’s broader programs to promote village self-reliance, alongside initiatives such as export villages and thematic villages, with the aim of ensuring that community needs across sectors are met. ***