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MINISTRY of Tourism and Creative Economy seeks to prepare the tourism industry to remain optimistic and prepare for the projected surge in performance in 2021.
According to Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Wishnutama Kusubandio after limited meeting (via video conference) led by President Joko Widodo on the topic of COVID-19 Impact Mitigation on the Tourism and Creative Economy Sector of the Jakarta Merdeka Palace on Thursday (16/4) said the Tourism Ministry has reallocated the budget and implemented a special program during the COVID-19 emergency response period so that the tourism sector and the creative economy are mitigated during the pandemic.
“The president directs that we will carry out a social protection program for tourism actors and the Ministry of Tourism & Culture reallocates a budget of IDR500 billion, this potential will continue to be developed,” Wishnutama said.
He added, the Tourism & Creative Economy Ministry would coordinate intensively with the Ministry of Finance as an effort to be able to provide various assistance to the tourism sector and the creative economy.
“Our reallocation will also carry out various kinds of programs that are labor intensive and this will be carried out further studies with relevant ministries, including economic stimulus for the tourism industry and creative economic players to be able to survive through the current situation,” Wishnutama noted.
He also explained, the Ministry of Tourism had also carried out various special programs during the COVID-19 emergency period. Such as providing accommodation and transportation for health workers with health SOPs from the Ministry of Health and WHO which must still be met. To date there are 1,725 health workers who have been facilitated. Then there is the cloth mask movement that empowers SMEs with a target of reaching 1 million cloth masks.
“We are also preparing a ready-to-eat side dish program. Such as dried beef jerky side dish, shredded, and so on. On the other hand this program will directly involve and help tourism and creative economy players,” he concluded.
While President Joko Widodo previously believed that the sluggishness of the tourism sector due to the corona virus pandemic (COVID-19) would only last until the end of the year. For this reason, an attitude of optimism must continue to be built so that the tourism sector can take advantage of the rising momentum as soon as the downturn ends.
“I believe this is only until the end of the year. Next year there will be a boom in the field of tourism. Everyone wants to get out, everyone wants to enjoy the beauty that is in the regions that have tourism so that optimism must continue to be raised. Don’t until later we are trapped in pessimism because of the COVID-19 problem so that the boom that will emerge after COVID-19 is over, we cannot take advantage of it well,” President Jokowi affirmed.
For this reason, the Tourism & Creative Economy Ministry is currently trying to prepare destinations in accordance with the “new normal” post-COVID-19 conditions according to the principle of excellent hygiene and sanitization, offering unique local experiences, to good visitor management so that there is no overcrowding.
In addition, tourism destinations are also encouraged to continue to improve and be more aggressive in applying the principles of sustainable tourism development (resilience, sustainable, and responsible). [traveltext.id]
