Sandiaga: Acceleration Of Vaccination Stimulates Tourism Recovery

ILLUSTRATION OF PHOTOS/BETWEEN DOCKS/COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

JAKARTA - The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, has pushed for the acceleration of the vaccination program in an effort to restore the tourism sector and the creative economy in Indonesia.

Sandiaga said that up to now, less than 5 percent of people in the tourism and creative sector have been vaccinated, while the target to be achieved is 90 to 95 percent of the 34 million people who depend on this sector for their lives.

"The president directs us to have a 'sense of crisis'. Therefore, three million vaccination targets per day must be collaborated with stakeholders so that the COVID-19 pandemic can be controlled, as well as stimulate the economy and create jobs in the tourism and creative sector," said Sandiaga, quoted by Antara. , Saturday, July 17th.

"For this reason, we currently make campuses in six tourism PTNs and three authority agency offices as vaccination centers," he continued.

This was conveyed by Sandiaga while reviewing the Vaccination Center at the NHI Tourism College DOM Bandung, West Java, Saturday.

Sandiaga himself has officially opened vaccination centers at six state tourism universities (PTNP) and three authority bodies as an effort to support President Joko Widodo's program to increase the vaccination target of three million people per day in October 2021.

The six PTNPs are STP Bandung, STP Bali, Poltekpar Medan, Poltekpar Palembang, Poltekpar Lombok, and Poltekpar Makassar. The three authorities are the Lake Toba Authority, the Borobudur Authority, and the Labuan Bajo Authority.

Since February 2021, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has facilitated vaccination of more than 32,641 people through the facilitation of vaccine centers aimed at the general public as well as tourism and creative economy actors.

These efforts were carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, provincial and district/city governments, Grab Indonesia, Traveloka, Homecare24, Alodokter, Counters, and Tiket.com which were held in Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Batam, and Bintan.

At the beginning of the second semester until the end of 2021, the Kemenprekraf/Baparekraf will also continue to push for new vaccine centers. At the end of July, Kemenparekraf also facilitated a vaccination center located at SESKOAU Lembang in collaboration with Danone Indonesia and Homecare24 as well as at MNC Kebon Sirih and MNC Kebon Jeruk, in collaboration with PT. MNC, Doctora and Traveloka.

"So that at the end of August, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy together with 6 tourism universities and 3 authority bodies can vaccinate 38,276 tourism and creative industry actors and the general public," said Sandiaga.

He hopes that the program can be implemented every month until the end of 2021 as an effort to support the central government's vaccination target to achieve "herd immunity".

Sandiaga also explained about accelerating the process of government assistance for tourism businesses as an effort to increase the resilience of 34 million people in the tourism sector in facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are planning the third quarter (of this year), but because of PPKM, we will accelerate it, including the validation process from the local government. There are Rp2.4 trillion in funds that have been approved by the Ministry of Finance, we hope this can be executed so that we can end PPKM and carry out activities as before and open up the widest possible employment opportunities," he said.