Coordinating Minister Airlangga: Government Encourages Recovery Of The Tourism Sector And Creative Economy

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA - Various government efforts supported by the community in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and encouraging national economic growth have begun to show better results. As one of the sectors affected by the pandemic, the tourism and creative economy sectors also received support from the government to recover.

National Economic Recovery (PEN) support for tourism and the creative economy is channeled through various programs, namely Proud to Travel in Indonesia, Proud to be Made in Indonesia, and Indonesia Care/I Do Care in the hotel and tourism sector. Support has also been given to film activities, Government Assistance for Tourism Business (BPUP) and hotel accommodation support for health workers.

The government through the PEN fund has also allocated Rp7.67 trillion this year, to support the development of national tourism strategic areas and training of tourism human resources.

"The Government Incentive Assistance Program (BIP) for tourism sector players and the creative economy this year has also increased the budget to Rp. 60 billion. This means an increase of almost 3 times compared to 2020, which had a budget of Rp. 24 billion," said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto in the National Coordination Meeting. Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy 2021, virtually on Monday 27 September.

He further explained that the BIP participants' targets were seven sub-sectors of the creative economy, namely applications, game developers, crafts, fashion, culinary, film, and the tourism sector.

In 2020, the government will provide tourism grants of Rp. 3.3 trillion to local governments to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the nominal tourism grant fund will be increased to Rp. 3.7 trillion, which is intended to help local governments as well as industries, hotels and restaurants that are experiencing a decline in Regional Original Income (PAD) as well as financial disturbances due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The mechanism for this grant is transferred to the regions aimed at regional governments and tourism businesses in 101 regencies/cities based on various predetermined criteria," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

The criteria in question are the capital cities of 34 provinces located in 10 priority tourism destinations and 5 super priority destinations. Also areas that include 100 calendar of events, branding destinations are also regions with income from hotel taxes and restaurant taxes of at least 15 percent of the total PAD for the 2019 fiscal year.

The government has also launched the Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environmental Sustainability (CHSE) program which is part of the Indonesia Care/I Do Care program. The program was released to prepare the ability of the tourism sector and the creative economy to apply the principles of cleanliness, health, safety, and environmental sustainability in every aspect of their activities.

The Indonesia Care/I Do Care program is run in tandem with other programs which of course are expected to be followed up with collaboration between ministries, for example with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to implement health protocols in tourist destinations with National Park status until the reopening of services. international flights with discussions and discussions with the Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Law and Human Rights, and other related parties.

"With these government support programs, the tourism industry is expected to be able to improve its service standards in order to gain the trust of tourists, both domestic and foreign," concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.