PT TWC Awaits SOP for Going to Borobudur Temple from Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology

PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan, and Ratu Boko are still waiting for the standard operating procedures (SOP) related to tourist visits to temple buildings from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. This SOP will later become a reference for implementing tourist visits when the temple is opened. 

Deputy Acting General Manager of Borobudur and Manohara Unit, Pujo Suwarno, said that currently, his party can only respond to the plan to open visits to the temple building after receiving standard operating procedures (SOP) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. This SOP is currently awaited to be the basis for consideration in determining further policies related to tourist visits to the temple.

Pujo Suwarno ensured that whatever the contents of the SOP, PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko will continue to support efforts to preserve Borobudur Temple. 

"We continue to support all efforts made to protect and preserve the temple buildings," said Pujo, who also serves as VP Marketing and Sales of PT TWC, Thursday (1/9/2022).

Pujo added that there are still tourists who are disappointed and do not visit TWC Borobudur because they cannot go up to the top of Borobudur Temple. However, the number of such tourists is relatively small because most of them can understand the reason for the closure of the temple building and feel comfortable enough to just tour the temple grounds.

"So far, there are still tourists who are disappointed and do not want to visit after finding out that they cannot walk around the temple building," he continued.

The average number of visitors to Borobudur Temple Tourism Park is currently around 2.500 people per day on weekdays and reaches up to 6.000 people per day on weekends. They are spread across zone II of the TWC area to enjoy a number of facilities, such as the Borobudur Museum, Samudraraksa Museum and others.

Meanwhile, the plan to reopen the Borobudur Temple building for study or worship visits is not expected to have a significant impact on increasing the number of tourists. Tourism actors in the Borobudur area predict that it will not have an impact because the number of tourists with special purposes is relatively small and very limited. 

With these conditions, the opening of the Borobudur Temple building will create the same situation as when the temple building was closed, as is currently happening.

"The opening of Borobudur Temple for study visits or worship will not have any impact because most tourists who come (to the temple) are usually just groups of visitors without a goal who usually only want to travel by walking around and taking pictures at the temple," said the Head of the VW Cabrio Borobudur Community, Prana Aji.