Can These Various Incentives Revive The Tourism Sector Due To COVID-19?

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The corona virus or COVID-19 has become a global problem. The impact of this outbreak was felt in various sectors. One of them, tourism. The Indonesian government itself is currently starting to look for solutions so that the domestic economy will not be disturbed. One of them is by providing incentives for the tourism sector.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati confirmed that one of the incentives for the tourism sector to overcome the impact of the spread of the corona virus is a discount or discount on airplane ticket rates of up to 50 percent.

"We are providing an intensive 30 percent ticket discount from the government for 25 percent of the seats of 10 tourism destinations that are estimated to be affected by the decline in tourism," he said, when met at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, SCBD, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 26.

According to Sri Mulyani, the focus of this stimulus is on the tourism sector because this sector has been heavily impacted. The government has prepared an allocation of IDR 443.9 billion for domestic airlines and travel agents. Meanwhile, for foreign countries, the government has also prepared IDR 298.5 billion as an intensive for airlines.

In addition, Sri Mulyani also reminded that airline companies should provide separate discounts for tourists, instead of using incentives provided by the government as a substitute.

"If an airline company provides a discount, it cannot be substituted with the 30 percent that we provide, so it must be above that," he said.

According to Sri Mulyani, airline companies must comply with this provision because they will also get relief from Angkasa Pura such as service facilities and Pertamina through avtur discounts.

The government and Pertamina, said Sri Mulyani, have also provided incentives in the form of avtur discounts to airports in nine tourist destinations with a total discount of Rp265.5 billion which is valid for three months.

"Avtur and Angkasa Pura will provide discounts on various service facilities including airplane parking and others. We estimate that airplane ticket discounts can reach 50 percent, namely 30 percent from the government and 20 percent from airline companies," he said.

Not only that, Sri Mulyani also said that the government would also impose a zero percent tax rate for hotels and restaurants in 10 tourist destinations and in return, the affected regional governments would be given a subsidy of IDR 3.3 trillion by the central government.

"For the local government, hotel and restaurant taxes are asked not to be collected for six months but to be reimbursed by the central government for Rp. 3.3 trillion, so that the local government does not suffer losses," he explained.

Sri Mulyani said, with this intensive, it is hoped that many domestic and foreign tourists will visit Indonesia in the near future. So that economic activity in the tourism sector can return to normal.

"The tourism sector we provide various packages ranging from hotels, restaurants, to travel agents and airlines. We hope this can increase interest in traveling in the country and from countries outside of China," he said.

For your information, the 10 regions that have been given the incentive are Lake Toba, DI Yogyakarta, Malang, Manado, Bali, Mandalika, Labuan Bajo, Bangka Belitung, Batam and Bintan.