Jokowi Asks Menpar To Identify Tourist Areas With Minimal Covid-19 Transmission

President Joko Widodo. (Photo: Twitter @Jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has asked the Minister of Tourism Wishnutama Kusubandio to immediately prepare a special strategy to promote tourism in the new era of normality. He asked the Minister of Tourism to focus more on encouraging domestic tourism and domestic tourists.

As a first step, Jokowi then asked the Minister of Tourism to identify which tourism areas were ready to be visited because they were in areas with low transmission rates.

"I ask to identify tourist areas, tourist destinations that have R0 below 1 and Rt below 1 so that we can really gradually open up the tourism sector but at the same time with tight controls," said Jokowi when opening a limited meeting regarding the normal order. new in the productive and safe tourism sector COVID-19, Thursday, May 28.

What is meant by R0 is the reproduction rate or the number of COVID-19 transmission. If this number is higher, the rate of disease transmission will increase. Meanwhile, Rt or R effective is the reproductive rate that occurs after government intervention.

Returning to the above, Jokowi also requested that the tourism promotion program prepared by the Minister of Tourism must simultaneously intensify domestic-made products and domestic tourism attractions.

He did not target the timing of this tourism implementation, but Jokowi asked for a number of steps to be prepared. Including strict supervision, so that there will not be the spread of COVID-19 even though tourism is reopened.

"Once again, please follow this field strictly before we open it so that both domestic and foreign tourists can travel safely and the community can be productive, especially for tourism players," he said.

Tourism trends will change

In the ratas, Jokowi also said that trends in the world of tourism would change after the COVID-19 outbreak. According to him, later tourists will pay more attention to issues of health, cleanliness, safety and comfort before traveling and this will bring new trends and new references in choosing types of tourism in the future.

"The COVID pandemic will open a change in tourism trends in the world. In which the issues of health, hygiene, and safety, security will be the main considerations for tourists who want to travel. In addition, holiday references will shift to alternative vacations that are not many people like solo travel. tours, wellness tours, including virtual tourism and staycation, "he said.

So, with this shift in trend, Jokowi then asked his staff to be able to read opportunities and make innovations and improvements in order to adapt.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta also reminded the need for strict health protocols in the tourism support system such as accommodation and transportation, as well as in tourist attractions. To his ranks of ministers, Jokowi asked Indonesia to emulate other countries that had already prepared new norms in the tourism sector.

Furthermore, he continued, the standard of normality in the world of tourism in Indonesia must be massively socialized and tested. This test, said Jokowi, needs to be done so that in the future this standard health protocol can be implemented in various tourism objects to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Once there are imported cases, there is a health impact, so the bad image of tourism can stick and it will be difficult for us to fix it. Therefore, it is really calculated, calculated properly, and the management of supervision must be correct," he said.