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AN international webinar that discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector and conditions to face “The New Normal” from the perspective of the travel and tourism industry in Southeast Asia was held recently.
According to the Deputy for Resources and Institutional Affairs of the Ministry of Tourism, Frans Teguh, said tourism was a sector that was devastated by the pandemic. International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates, Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) in the Asia Pacific region in 2020 will decrease by 53.8%.
“The cessation of airline operations certainly has a huge impact on travel agents and tour operators. We never know when the trip will reopen, and when the trip is opened, the conditions are certainly very different. A good approach and adjustment is needed from the industry,” Frans Teguh said.
He explained that the tourism industry faced a big challenge in this pandemic. Good cooperation between the government and industry both in the country and the region is needed to be able to reverse the view if tourism will be the sector that takes the longest time to return to normal.
“Collaboration of all tourism stakeholders must be able to foster the confidence of tourists that traveling in normal situations will be able to continue to provide a sense of security and comfort,” he noted.
The same thing was said by Prof. Dr. Walter Jamieson, MCIP, Academic Consultant from Thammasat University, Thailand. According to him, now is the right time for the tourism industry in all Asian countries to make adjustments. Not only for the new normal period, but also afterwards. Because normal is just a transition to the actual normal situation when the vaccine was found.
“Ie the industry must really have new ways or innovations in attracting tourists visiting. Now is the time to be able to further improve industrial management towards better conditions, better environmental conditions,” he said.
ASEAN is a large market for tourism, he continued, for this reason, it is important for ASEAN countries to jointly prepare themselves to support tourist trips within the region. The concept of travel bubble is considered to be one of the steps that can be prepared by ASEAN countries.
“As is known, travel bubbles are in demand by several countries in designing cross-country travel in the midst of a pandemic. Namely when two or more countries have succeeded in controlling the spread of the corona virus, agreeing to create a travel corridor. This travel corridor will make it easier for residents who live in it to travel freely, and avoid the obligation of independent quarantine,” he stressed.
Likewise, Regional Director of APCS & MER & Asia Pacific of IATA, Vinoop Goel said, IATA has launched a protocol that can be used as a guide for all countries in the aviation world in dealing with new normal situations. In COVID-19 testing in the tourist travel process for example.
If the government of a country requires tourists to conduct COVID-19 free tests, then the test must provide fast results and be carried out on a large scale with a high degree of accuracy. And carried out by trained public health officials,” he concluded. [traveltext.id/photo special]
