New website aims to promote Covid-19 efforts in SE Asia

ASEAN Agrees to Use visitseasia.travel Website as Official Platform for All Tourism and COVID-19 Related Updates

South-east Asian countries have agreed to publicise Covid-19-related updates, as well as promote the region’s tourism offerings, on a shared platform.

All updates on travel, tourism and measures to combat Covid-19 relating to the ASEAN member states can soon be found at visitseasia.travel.

During a recent video conference meeting, representatives from ASEAN member countries agree to use visitseasia.travel website as official platform for all tourism and Covid-19-related updates

Covid-19-related content featured on the site will include statistics, travel advisory notices, mitigation efforts, new policies, and success stories from each member state in handling Covid-19.

The move was proposed by current chair of the ASEAN Tourism Communication Team, Malaysia, during the Special Video Conference Meeting of the ASEAN Tourism Communication Team on the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) held on June 4, 2020.

During the meeting, the director of inter-institutional relations for the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE) and head of the Indonesian delegation, Candra Negara, said that the focus of all ASEAN member states is to restore tourists’ trust in the cleanliness and safety of South-east Asian destinations.

Global travellers are keen to know the efforts by tourism stakeholders in these destinations to tackle the new normal post-Covid, he added.

Agustini Rahayu, director of communication bureau for MoTCE, said that Indonesia’s handling of Covid-19 includes “enhancing channels of communication, introducing services to reassure tourists, and the deployment of human and digital resources of the tourism and creative economies to tackle the crisis”.

Following this approach, the Indonesian government has provided the covid19.go.id website, which is managed by the national task force, as an official source of Covid-19 data in Indonesia. Specifically, for the tourism and creative economy sector, MoTCE also provides regular Covid-19-related updates on the pedulicovid19.kemenparekraf.go.id microsite.

In addition to the deployment of digital and communications resources, the Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Health, has also issued several health protocols for various sectors published in both paper and electronic format (mobile and desktop) as a Health Care Card for tourists.

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