TIMES MALANG, JAKARTA – The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, Sandiaga Salahudin Uno officially listed Kayutangan Heritage as one of 75 Indonesian Tourism Villages 2023 on Sunday evening (16/4/2023). Sandi spent two days touring the village on Jl Basuki Rahmat during his stay in Malang.

During his visit, Sandiaga and his team reviewed a number of top tourist attraction spots in the area. Such as Namsin's house, Rukun Warga (RW) Hall, Mbah Honggo's grave, Mbah Ndut's coffee shop, clog shoes crafts, and Oenbitjkoek specialty bakery. He also visited the riverside pedestrian photo spot, Krempyeng Market, and 1870 House.

Sandi was very impressed with his visit. "Very interesting and high in heritage value. In the middle of Malang City, you can still feel an atmosphere like this," Sandi said on the sidelines during a walk around the venue.

Not only on Sunday night did Sandi travel around Kayutangan Heritage Village, but also in the morning. He and his team entered the alleys of the village which has been rearranged into a heritage village built on a budget of 23 billion Rupiah from the central government and the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget of Malang.

Sandi seemed impressed. "Earlier in the morning I walked with the team. I also walked there at night. It was brilliant," Sandi recalled.

Increasing Economic and Tourism Opportunities 

Sandi revealed, there is a great opportunity for tourist movement in Indonesia, which reaches 123.8 million, which must be utilized by tourism agencies. From this movement, it is predicted that there will be an economic turnover of between IDR 100 trillion to IDR 150 trillion.

"The report of the Mayor and the head of the Establishment of Tourism Awareness Group who counted the visits to Kayutangan Heritage Village was quite a lot. There are about 25 thousand visits here already. This is an extraordinary potential to be developed," Sandi said.

With such a large visit count, it will be able to boost the economy in Malang City through the tourism sector. "Very potential indeed," he said.

The minister also hopes that the existence of Kayutangan Heritage Village can create extensive business and employment opportunities for the community.

Kayutangan Heritage Village as a Model for Tourist Destination Development and Creative Economy

The Mayor of Malang, Sutiaji, said that Kayutangan Heritage Village is one of the models for developing tourist destinations and the creative economy resulting from collective hard work. "The growth of the creative economy in Malang City reached 10 percent, including in this case the opening of thematic villages. Like this Kayutangan Heritage Village," he said.

This was confirmed by H Yunar Mulya, the head of local vommunity. He noted that many economic activities of the this community were boosted by the existence of this tourism village. "It has a huge impact. The economy is alive. We will continue to develop it to be even better to attract even more tourists," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of Kayutangan Establishment of Tourism Awareness Group, Mila Kurniawati, expressed her happiness over the achievements of her village in the 2023 Indonesian Tourism Village Award (ADWI). Mila hopes that this place can become a famous tourist destination in Malang City, Indonesia, and the world.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno also provided assistance for the development of digitization of tourist villages in the form of a set of laptops and printers.

In the near future, one of the partner industries of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia will conduct a mapping survey to support the arrangement of Kayutangan Heritage. (*)