Task Force Asks Residents To Choose Smarter Travel Destinations During Eid Holidays

ILLUSTRATION/ Pandawa Beach Bali/ BETWEEN DOCKS

JAKARTA - The government allows people to return to their hometowns. This year, the government also provides leave with Eid al-Fitr 1443 H so that people also have free time to travel in various regions.

Seeing the potential for widespread mobility to tourist areas, Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, appealed to the public to be selective in choosing tourist destinations to visit.

Wiku asked residents who were traveling to avoid crowds as much as possible. This is because this has the potential to increase the spread of COVID-19 cases again.

"Especially for the public, we are advised to be smart in traveling by not visiting crowded areas or crowds to minimize the chance of transmitting Covid-19," said Wiku in a virtual press conference, Wednesday, April 27.

In addition, Wiku also asked the managers of tourist attractions or public facilities to always monitor the health protocols of their visitors together with the local government.

"Public facility providers must be able to disciplinedly enforce PPKM policies that apply in their area and the local government will also not hesitate to impose sanctions if violations are found," he said.

Separately, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Uno estimates that the circulation of money in the tourism sector during the 2022 Eid holiday will reach IDR 72 trillion. Sandiaga said this amount would be distributed in a number of areas that are homecoming destinations.

Furthermore, Sandiaga said of the Rp72 trillion figure, 60 percent came from Java and 40 percent spread outside Java.

"Because this needs to be used as well as possible for domestic products, we can direct our creative economy players to take this opportunity," said Sandiaga, on Monday, April 25.

The former Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta said that the Lebaran homecoming season could increase money circulation by as much as 10 percent and be able to contribute more than 25 percent to quarterly economic growth. This is because there will be 80 million people who carry out Lebaran homecoming this year.

For people who go home by land transportation, continued Sandiaga, the government will provide alternative tourism for people who experience traffic jams. This alternative tourism is in the form of tourist villages and creative economy centers that can be visited by residents.

"Besides that, tourist destinations that can solve traffic jams by providing alternatives to them are jammed, maybe there are several tourist villages and creative economy centers that can be visited and we have socialized this massively," he explained.