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ASSOCIATION of Indonesian Travel Companies (ASITA) said that the business of travel companies in North Sumatra is still worsening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the North Sumatra DPD ASITA, Solahuddin Nasution in Medan said that there is no contract for handling tourists from overseas partners, including requests for tour packages abroad and even domestic, really still down.
“In fact, the fresh air of the Umrah business that was about to run was finally canceled again because the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing until early January 2021. The number of confirmed patients in North Sumatra and nationally, also has an increasing trend since the 2020 Christmas and New Year 2021 holidays, worried again,” he said.
Solahuddin explained due to the slump in business, said Solahuddin, travel companies in North Sumatra had not yet re-hired employees after being “sent home”. Travel entrepreneurs still lay off their employees because the company’s operations have not yet started.
“Although still in doubt because the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, ASITA North Sumatra hopes that tourism will recover so that businesses can start running,” Solahuddin noted.
Meanwhile, Head of the North Sumatra Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Syech Suhaimi said the number of foreign tourists who came to North Sumatra until November 2020 had still fallen compared to the same period in 2019.
“In the January-November 2020 period, foreign tourists in North Sumatra were only 45,852 people or far below the 2019 figure of 234,709 people. The number of 45,852 people was also mostly obtained from the January-March period. The COVID-19 pandemic only started in February,” he revealed. [antaranews]
