Indonesia is a country that has abundant islands, and the country has a lot of potential for natural resources. It can be proven that Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world consisting of 17,499 islands with a coastline of 81,000 km (West Java Provincial Government, 2017, #). Which with the size of Indonesia’s waters and islands makes Indonesia a maritime country that has its natural beauty. Thursday, 10 February 2022 Indonesia was nominated as the most beautiful country in the world by Time Out magazine, which is based in England. Indonesia is the first country out of ten countries as the most beautiful country in the world, where the nomination is determined based on the number of natural resources it has. Among them, Indonesia has 17,000 islands, 147 volcanoes, and countless world-beating coral reefs and rainforests (Cunningham, 2022, #). Indonesia became the first country with a natural beauty score with a score of 7.77 / 10 and it was followed by New Zealand, Colombia, Tanzania, Mexico, Kenya, India, France, Papua New Guinea, and Comoros. Through this nomination, this can be a great potential for Indonesia to maintain its natural beauty without any exploitation activities or activities that can damage its natural beauty. Consequently, the natural beauty that Indonesia has, it can be an opportunity for Indonesia to be maximized as an attraction for the international community to enjoy the natural beauty of Indonesia. The interest of the international community to visit Indonesia as a tourism destination country can make Indonesia’s branding even better. The formation of a good image of a country will also have an impact on international cooperation that exists with partner countries. If a country is seen as a good country and has many advantages, this will create good cooperation and can use this strategy to shape the role of the state to maximize diplomatic activities. Indonesia is an ASEAN member country where Indonesia has signed the ASEAN Declaration of Heritage Parks and Reserves (ACB) on November 29, 1984 which was signed by six ASEAN member countries including Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The ASEAN Declaration of Heritage Parks and Reserves has five basic principles, namely maintaining important ecological processes and life support systems; preserving genetic diversity; maintaining the diversity of plants and animals in their natural habitats; ensuring the sustainable use of resources; and open access for recreation, tourism, education, and research to make people understand the importance of natural resources (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, 2016, #).
Through the collaboration and cooperation among ASEAN member countries, Indonesia must continue to maintain its natural resources and natural beauty by increasing sustainable cooperation with inter-regional countries that share the same principles, one of which is strengthening strategies in overcoming biodiversity problems and continuing to cooperate to prevent the occurrence of sustainable climate change which it will have a bad impact and harm the creatures on earth. The abundance of natural beauty that is owned by Indonesia triggers many foreign people who visit Indonesia, especially in the tourism sector which is one of the sectors that contributes to the country’s foreign exchange. Based on data from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency explains that the country’s foreign exchange in the tourism sector always increases every year including in 2016 amounting to 11.206 billion US $; in 2017 of 13.139 Billion US$; and in 2018 it increased by 16,426 Billion US$ (Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics, n.d., #). Therefore, with a large contribution from the tourism sector, this can contribute to improving the country’s economy. In addition, by maximizing Indonesian tourism through promoting its natural beauty, this can not only improve Indonesia’s branding and the country’s economy, but by maximizing natural wealth and tourism destinations in Indonesia, this can be an Indonesian strategy to reduce unemployment in Indonesia. Because it can open up opportunities for the people of Indonesia to open up many workers opportunities, creating jobs that can reduce unemployment in Indonesia. In which the Indonesian workforce in the tourism sector in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic will increase in 2021 by 19.83 million people (Zatnika, 2021, #). This shows that the superiority of the tourism sector in Indonesia, will have a good impact on the nation’s image and provide benefits for Indonesian citizens to get jobs.
Thus, with so much potential for Indonesia to become a country that is rich in natural beauty and become a country ranked as one of the most beautiful countries in the world, this achievement needs to be maintained and is needed to maximize it to maintain the preservation of Indonesia’s nature which is by maintaining the preservation of Indonesia’s nature. Besides, it will help various parties in various aspects including society and the state. Indonesia will reduce unemployment if people get jobs from the tourism sector, and the government will smoothly build international cooperation between countries because of Indonesia’s good image. Due to the smoothness of international cooperation and the smooth running of negotiations between countries, it depends on the quality of the country. If the country has a good image, it is seen as a country that has a lot of potentials, this will launch negotiations between countries that the potentials possessed by Indonesia, especially Indonesia has extraordinary natural beauty, this can be an advantage and a challenge in the future that must be maintained and maximized so that the advantages it has are not reduced and it is necessary to continue to preserve the advantages possessed. which will have a good impact on Indonesian citizens and Indonesia’s reputation in the international society.
