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TOURISM JOURNALISTS URGES FOR IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION FUNCTION FOR TOURISM CRISIS

JOURNALIST Forum for Tourism & Creative Economy (Forwaparekraf) stated the importance of the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy immediately activate the crisis communication function in the tourism sector. There are two major issues faced by the government today, namely in general the national crisis with regard to COVID19, and specifically the crisis in the tourism sector from the impact of COVID-19.

According to Johan Sompotan, Head of Forwaparekraf in Jakarta, said that the positive sufferer of COVID-19 has now penetrated 1,000 cases of transmission with a mortality rate of above 8%. This has come to the attention of all sectors in Indonesia as well as in the world. For tourism, this pandemic has been and will be a major blow, because the crisis has the potential to make this service industry stop its pulse completely.

“As a measure to overcome this, Forwaparekraf feels that Tourism Ministry needs to carry out immediate crisis communication functions specifically in the tourism sector. It is hoped that this communication can manage issues in the midst of a crisis, so as to build understanding and public support for policies and measures specifically undertaken by the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy,” Johan said.

He added, it was also hoped that the two-way communication function would be able to absorb public aspirations, gather facts and figures, information in order to achieve these targets earlier. The ultimate goal of these targets is the achievement of a tourism target that functions three things, after the root causes of the crisis and the impact of Covid-19 have been resolved, namely as follows: (1). Tourism accelerates the improvement of people’s welfare, (2). The largest foreign exchange earning tourism, (3). Tourism really becomes the core economy in Indonesia. This is important to guarantee clear information for all parties involved in tourism.

“We are aware that in the current conditions the government is prioritizing the field of public health, social safety nets in order to stabilize the financial sector. Special benefits such as reducing taxes for hotels and restaurants that do not cut off work relations with employees are also the right step,” he added.

Johan stressed, not to mention the other steps that were to be realized would greatly affect when communicated. However, this has not been well communicated with the industry. Forwarparekraf believes that tourism crisis communication is needed.

“As part of pentahelix tourism, Forwarparekraf will play an active role in conveying to the public the current situation and steps that have been and will be taken by the Ministry of Tourism,” he concluded.

Furthermore, Chairperson of Forwaparekraf, Arifin Hutabarat proposed that Tourism Ministry create a Working Group (one working group only) in the Communication Bureau to carry out a Crisis Communication Center function, without needing to call it a crisis center. The communication working group carried out issues management, namely the crisis in the tourism sector as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“This working group issues self-produced press releases as information to the media to answer public questions including industry from government policies addressing this situation. This pandemic will sooner or later end. So it is still necessary to foster and promote mutual understanding between the government, the tourism industry, and the community in order to keep trying to advance the tourism business as soon as the roots of the crisis have been resolved,” Arifin concluded. [traveltext.id/photo special]