Indonesia strives to revive the tourism industry

In an effort to revive the tourism industry that is suffering from the pandemic, Indonesia plans to establish tourism corridors in some of its famous tourist destinations such as Batam Island, Bintan in the Riau Islands and Bali. Previously, the Indonesian government also tested a program to send civil servants to Bali to work.

The resort island of Bali lost $4.3 billion in income last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo: NT) In an effort to revive the tourism industry that is suffering from the pandemic, Indonesia plans to establish tourism corridors in some of its famous tourist destinations such as Batam Island, Bintan in the Riau Islands and Bali. Previously, the Indonesian government also tested a program to send civil servants to Bali to work. The official of the Covid-19 task force, Sonny Harmadi, said on June 6 that the government was completing the implementation of a tourism bubble in three regions. According to this program, tourist destinations implementing tourism bubbles must have a low number of Covid-19 cases, a low rate of Covid-19 patients in hospital, and have relaxed regulations restricting public activities. . The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy will first open its doors to visitors to Bali and the Riau Islands. According to Mr. Sonny, not all of these locations will reopen to international visitors but will gradually open, starting from the green areas (areas that have been treated with the epidemic). “Local authorities announced that, first, the green zones in these two localities will welcome international visitors again after the tourism corridor is opened,” Mr. Sonny said. In Bali, the green zones include Sanur, Ubud, and Nusa Dua, while the green zones at Bintan are home to three resorts and on Batam Island are several golf venues. Sunset at Tanah Lot temple is always an attractive moment for tourists when coming to Bali island (Photo: NT) The Indonesian government will also set specific regulations for international visitors to these green areas. Although travelers are not required to self-quarantine, travelers must have a negative PCR test result for Covid-19 before departing for Indonesia. At the same time, visitors must also be fully vaccinated against the Covid-19 vaccine. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the list of countries for Indonesia to implement a tourism corridor has been completed including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, China, Singapore and the Netherlands. Lan. Tourism is one of the industries that suffer the most damage of the “land of ten thousand islands” economy. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indonesian Government was expected to welcome 18 million international tourists in 2020 after recording 16.1 million international arrivals in 2019. However, the agency Statistics Indonesia at the end of 2020 announced that from January to October 2020, the country only received 3.72 million international visitors, a decrease of 72.35% compared to the same period in 2019. Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has set a target in 2021 to attract between 13 million and 14 million international tourists. Prior to the announcement of the tourism corridor plan for international visitors, the Indonesian government announced the “Work from Bali” (WFB) program to revive the tourism and creative economy industries that have been frozen because of the pandemic. Covid-19 of this island. Accordingly, WFB plans to bring 25% of Indonesian civil servants from seven different ministries to the resort island of Bali to work and live in hotel complexes in the Nusa Dua area. This initiative comes after statistics show that the total revenue of the world-famous resort island of Bali has “evaporated” $ 4.3 billion due to the pandemic. Therefore, to regain the confidence of the people in the country, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has planned to test this program from the first quarter of 2021 and will complete it in the third quarter of this year. The ministry also aims to increase occupancy in Bali to 30%. “We started the WFB program in January and we are already seeing early results in revitalizing the tourism industry in Bali. From only 2,000 to 2,500 visitors, it has now reached 7,000 to 7,500 visitors, and the number can be tripled,” said Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno optimistically.