Luhut Pandjaitan Emphasized That Indonesia Has Not Received Foreign Tourists By The End Of The Year

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Photo by: Setkab)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menkomarves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Indonesia would not open the tourism sector to foreign tourists until the end of this year. This is because the government has decided to optimize domestic tourists first during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We want to focus on 70 percent of the domestic tourists' recovery. The problem of foreign tourists, we will not accept it until the end of the year. Let us consolidate first," he said, at the 2020 APINDO Rakerkonas National Working Meeting and Consultation, Jakarta, Thursday, 13 August.

Luhut said, positive cases of COVID-19 in a number of tourism areas had decreased. This means that tourist attractions are starting to be re-visited, but they are limited to local tourists.

"Yesterday we opened Bali and Banyuwangi," he said.

Furthermore, Luhut said that he had communicated with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) regarding the decision not to open tourism to foreign tourists. He reasoned that the potential for money in the country to be spent is currently quite a lot.

According to Luhut, with this potential, the domestic economic movement during this pandemic was actually still there. One of the large sources of money comes from people's savings who canceled their pilgrimage after Saudi Arabia restricted visits to worship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I reported to the president yesterday that we have quite a lot of money because there are no Umrah people. Every year, almost 500 thousand to 1 million (people), those who have Umrah funds. Then people who seek treatment in Singapore and Malaysia do not seek treatment. . If we count it, it could be tens of trillions, or billions of dollars, "he said.

Luhut said the government was studying ways to get people to spend their funds in the country in the midst of this pandemic. So, economic activity can move back in the country.

"That's why we also want to engage with well-known hospitals, for example in Bali. Or foreigners in the technology or IT field, maybe they can work from Bali, we are thinking about it and we are encouraging it. We are still making the rules," he said.