Tourism is an important part of the Indonesian economy and an important source for generating employment and foreign exchange reserves. Swisscontact has been actively supporting the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism since 2009 to strengthen the competitiveness of selected tourism destinations.

The Government of Indonesia has set a number of objectives to improve the role of tourism in the Indonesian economy and has allocated additional funds to the Ministry of Tourism for promotion. The remaining core areas for the Indonesian Government to be addressed are: connectivity, basic services and tourism infrastructure; workforce skills and quality standards; investment and business climate; coordination and implementation capabilities at national and sub-national level.

The government of Indonesia has prioritized tourism as one of the main pillars of the country’s economic growth potential. Its strategy is to make the tourism industry Indonesia’s biggest short-term source of foreign exchange revenues. Within the overall framework of the national tourism strategy, the aim is to build up sustainability in the tourism sector through competitive and sustainable destinations and a skilled workforce.

The STED project aims to contribute to this goal by working towards a better qualified workforce with relevant skills for the tourism sector. Demand driven education will ensure that graduates meet the standards required by the Indonesian tourism sector, and will equip them with better knowledge on sustainability and inclusion, thereby creating more and better jobs for local population. The project is part of a broader system. While the primary beneficiary is the tourism destination of Lombok, the broader tourism sector in Indonesia and the Indonesian TVET system will also benefit from the project´s results via strengthening of a network of education institutions under the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy Republic of Indonesia (MoTCE).