Tourism Sector Went Down Last Year, The Recovery Phase Is Believed To Happen In The Second Half Of 2021

Lake Bedugul tourism area in Bali. (Photo: By courtesy)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) estimates that the tourism sector will begin to show a recovery phase in the third quarter of 2020.

Deputy for Strategic Policy at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Raden Kurleni Ukar said optimism for growth in the second half of this year depends heavily on the ability to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We found that domestic tourist activity began to improve, although it was limited due to the Micro-scale Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) policy. But it needs to be remembered that the mobility of people in the provinces who carry out tourism activities is increasing", she said in the webinar Breaking Inertia for Economic Recovery organized by CORE Indonesia, Tuesday, April 27.

Kurleni added that it is hoped that the indication of increased mobility will not trigger an increase in the spread of the pandemic by implementing health protocols.

"We also hope that this year's homecoming ban can be obeyed by the whole community so that they can immediately get out of the threat of COVID-19 which then has a positive impact on economic recovery, including in the tourism sector", she said.

Furthermore, the community can use the elimination of Eid homecoming this year to carry out tourism activities around the area of residence.

"Because Eid homecoming is, maybe you can go on tours that are close to you and not outside the city so that this industry can stay alive", she added.

For information, the number of all tourists in 2020 was recorded at 4.05 million from the previous 16.11 million people in 2019.

Of this number, there were only 1.2 million foreign tourists or around 100.000 people every month last year.

This result also dragged the foreign exchange formation figure contributed by the travel industry, with a contraction of 79.1 percent year-on-year to only 3.5 billion in 2020.

"This condition also causes the workforce to fall by 6 percent to around 13 million workers", she added.

"We invite all parties to collaborate together and spread optimism that this pandemic will end, and continue to strictly implement health protocols", concluded Kurleni.