title: Arief Yahya
text: # Arief Yahya
  
  Arief Yahya (born 2 April 1961 in Banyuwangi) is the former Minister of Tourism of Indonesia between 2014 and 2019 in the Working Cabinet of President Joko Widodo. Prior to becoming a minister, he had been the CEO at state-owned Telkom Indonesia between 2012 and his appointment.
  
  ## Background
  
  Yahya was born in Banyuwangi, East Java on 2 March 1961, his father a merchant while her mother was a stay-at-home parent. At the age of 18, he was admitted to the Bandung Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering. Later, he would receive a scholarship from his workplace to study at Surrey University. He continued to earn his doctorate at Padjadjaran University, graduating with a business management degree in 2014.
  
  ## Career
  
  ### Telkom
  
  He started working at Telkom Indonesia in 1986. There, he gradually rose up the corporate ranks, at points becoming head of a local office, a regional division, then becoming a director of enterprise and wholesale.
  
  In 2012, he was appointed by the government as CEO, replacing Rinaldi Firmansyah.
  
  ### Minister of Tourism
  
  He was appointed minister of tourism by newly elected Joko Widodo in 2014. In 2015, his ministry set a target to have 20 million foreign visitors by 2019, with visits that year numbering around 9 million per year. By 2017, the number had increased to 14 million.
  
  