At Anies Baswedan's Office, Sandi: Jakarta Tourism Grows 20 Percent This Year

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Uno projects tourism in DKI Jakarta will grow by around 15 to 20 percent this year if COVID-19 is controlled.

"Hopefully, if we can continue to suppress the number of COVID-19 transmissions and we can continue to open tourism areas, so that we can see a 15-20 percent increase (from now on)," Sandiaga said at Jakarta City Hall, reported by Antara, Monday, April 19.

Sandiaga said he believed that Jakarta's tourism projections were very dependent on the number of decreasing COVID-19 and if it could suppress the transmission of COVID-19, it was believed that the second semester of DKI tourism could return to normal.

The condition of tourism in Jakarta itself, said Sandiaga, was severely affected, it is evident that the hotel occupancy rate is currently still below 40 percent, a number of agendas in Jakarta are delayed by 80 percent, the activities of Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) 47 percent canceled.

"So, this is what we have to finish. Yesterday with the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) we are trying to improve again, raise it again but with a strict and disciplined process," he said.

Even though he has a projection of being able to make an increase of 15-20 percent in the second half of this year, Sandiaga said that Jakarta has not entered the currently opened tourism area.

"Jakarta has not yet (opened) because it is waiting for the spread of COVID-19 to be controlled, we are currently focusing on Batam, Bali, and Bintan," said Sandiaga.

Based on data from the DKI Jakarta Central Statistics Agency (BPS), foreign tourist visits to Jakarta during February 2021 totaled 5,966 people or a decrease of 95.5 percent compared to the same period in 2020 of 132,697 people.

Most of the foreign tourists visiting Jakarta came from China 15.64 percent, South Korea 9.86 percent, Russia 6.82 percent, Japan 6.67 percent, and the United States 5.65 percent.

Although COVID-19 is said to have a very significant impact on Jakarta tourism, in June 2020 or when COVID-19 was still endemic in Indonesia, BPS noted that there were around 924 thousand foreign tourist visits to Jakarta.

This is because this time coincides with a long holiday and after Eid al-Fitr.