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TOURISM & Creative Economy Minister Wishnutama Kusubandio said it would take around one month to prepare a new order at a tourism location if the place would be reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How long is the preparation, depending on the region, if I do simple calculations, more or less preparation for the implementation of the stages is about one month from the day it says ‘OK this area is planned to be opened, not 1 month from now yes but 1 month is more or less than when the area was determined to be opened,” Wishnutama said at his office in Jakarta.
Wishnutama conveyed that after attending a limited meeting with the theme “New Normal Order in the Productive and Safe Tourism Sector COVID-19” led by President Joko Widodo.
During the meeting, President Jokowi asked for a new normal order protocol in the tourism sector that addresses the main issue of the distribution of tourism issues to the issues of health, hygine (cleanliness), safety & security both in transportation, hotels, restaurants and tourist areas.
“It is not just natural tourism that has been prepared by so many restaurants, hotels of various types of tourism we have all prepared and are in the stage of synchronization and harmonization with ministries and institutions as well as with the Task Force, once again must be coordinated with the Task Force is very important,” Wishnutama added.
Wishnutama admitted that the government has also prepared a number of supporting tourism infrastructures such as airports, ports, gods of tourism to the creative economy but is currently focusing on working on domestic tourists.
“When it can later be reopened, me and the Kemenparekraf team have coordinated with Garuda Indonesia to prepare various packages including tourist hotels at very attractive prices,” Wishnutama noted.
But for a tourist destination to be opened with new normal rules, according to Wishnutama, there must be strict implementation of standard operating procedures (SOP) at airports, hotels and tourist sites.
“And it has high consequences if permission is needed to be revoked if it does not comply with established health protocols, but indeed everything must be prepared in detail, be careful, it needs stages to be taken into account so that the time it starts to be opened gradually will create confidence because our promotion strategy is how there is confidence,” he added.
But Wishnutama does not explain which areas will be used as a “pilot project” as the first tourist area to be opened with new normal rules.
“What reopened is that the handling of the COVID is good according to the report of the Task Force and Bali is one of the provinces that has been very well managed so far, so it’s potential, but again this has to coordinate with the respective regional heads and regents/mayors, so this coordination is important, central, regional, and district coordination is the most important to carry out these stages,” he concluded. [photo special]
