Virus weighs down Indonesia tourism

JAKARTA－The reopening of Indonesia's holiday islands to international tourists still seems a long way away.

Indonesia's COVID-19 cases started soaring since mid-June, accompanied by the strictest restrictions on public activities so far, holding the recovery of both the domestic and international tourism industries at bay.

Travel agencies have either been downsizing or closing, and some have switched to other trades in order to survive.

"All of our clients have canceled their trips. We're quite busy with refunds and rescheduling," said Oki Kurniawan, owner of a travel agency. "June was quite good for us, but the PPKM enforced since July brought us back to square one."

In order to contain COVID-19, with daily new cases surpassing 20,000 for several days in a row, the Indonesian government imposed emergency community activity restrictions, locally known as the PPKM, in Java and Bali from July 3 to 20.

Shopping malls, schools and places of worship are closed. Only takeouts are allowed in restaurants. And it is mandatory for businesses in nonessential sectors to have their employees work from home. Travel for leisure is out of the question.

Bahriansyah Momod, secretary-general of the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies, or ASITA, said business for travel agencies picked up a bit from February to Ramadan, but sales have gone down again since the end of the fasting month till now.

An international travel ban has also limited foreign arrivals entering Indonesia for essential purposes only.

From January to May, Indonesia recorded 664,550 foreign visitor arrivals, a 77.62 percent drop compared to the same period last year, according to Indonesia's Central Agency of Statistics.

According to ASITA data, at least 30 percent of 1,000 surveyed travel agency members have closed down and stopped all business due to forced layoffs. Furthermore, 65 percent are still in operation albeit without offices and employees, and only 5 percent claim to still have employees.

Short-lived momentum

Income for Indonesian travel agencies as an industry has dropped by 85 percent in 2020 as compared to 2019. There was a small increase earlier this year, but the momentum did not last long.

In Indonesia's most prestigious tourist destination Bali, locals in the tourism industry had to find some other work.

To save its hard-hit tourism industry, Indonesia is struggling to find a way out.

ASITA is pushing for programs that will quicken the opening of the country's borders. It is now involved in a pilot project in Bali, which will be the first destination to promote vaccination based tourism that can hopefully be followed by other islands as well.

Indonesia has long planned to establish travel bubbles with a number of countries and regions. In such schemes, foreign tourists that have already been vaccinated and have negative PCR test results can travel to locations rated safe in Indonesia without undergoing quarantine.

However, the timeline to implement travel bubbles has been delayed, but it is still seen as a practical solution for the near future.