Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE) will focus on quality and sustainable tourism in the pandemic aftermath, with a target of attracting between 1.8 and 3.6 million international visitors this year.
Visitor arrivals to Indonesia last year totalled 1.5 million, a significant drop from the 4.05 million arrivals in 2020.
Tourism and creative economy minister Sandiaga Uno said that the “number of international arrivals used to be our target, but now, we are focusing on tourism with quality and sustainability”.
Kurleni Ukar, deputy minister of strategic policies at MoTCE, explained that the government has not set a high target number, but as Indonesia will play host to a number of international events this year, the ministry is expecting “a higher revenue from tourism” as compared to last year.
Rizki Handayani, deputy minister of tourism products and events at MoTCE, said that as the ongoing pandemic will impact inbound leisure travel into Indonesia, the government will conduct more business, sporting and cultural events this year in order to boost visitation.
This year, Indonesia is slated to host major events such as the G20 Summit, the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network Conference and MotoGP Mandalika 2022.
In the past, leisure travellers represented 63 to 65 per cent of total tourist arrivals in Indonesia, while business travellers accounted for only 23 per cent. However, this year, Rizki expects a notable increase in the number of business visitors.
The arrival target was determined by taking into consideration Indonesia’s current border policy and accessibility due to the pandemic, said Kurleni.
Nia Niscaya, deputy minister of tourism marketing, said: “(Our target market selection) will be very dynamic as (we) will need to coordinate with the Ministry of Health (based) on the number of Covid-19 cases in the source markets. On the other hand, travellers will also consider the returning home policies in their countries. They will refrain from leaving their countries if it is complicated.”
However, Nia added, the search volume on search engines showed that Indonesia is still on top of travellers’ minds.
Kurneli said potential markets to Indonesia, particularly Bali, include Australia which has shown high interest to travel; India; and with the availability of direct flights, Japan.
As for Batam and Bintan, which are expected to reopen this year, the main target markets are Singapore and Malaysia.
Malaysia’s health ministry will suspend umrah trips to Saudi Arabia for a month from Saturday (January 8), in light of the rising number of Omicron variant cases among returning Umrah pilgrims.
During this period, the health ministry and other relevant authorities will be carrying out a risk assessment and updating the SOPs for umrah travellers, including making booster vaccines mandatory for all pilgrims in the future as well as monitoring their health status while they are in Saudi Arabia.
According to health minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, Omicron variant cases among Umrah pilgrims made up 64.08 per cent or 157 cases of the 245 cumulative positive Omicron cases detected in Malaysia as of January 6.
In a statement, Selangor Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies president, Fathir Badri, expressed disapproval of the umrah travel ban. He said a better solution would be to allow the Umrah pilgrimages to continue, but to tighten the SOPs for returning Umrah pilgrims at the airport.
He said about 10,000 pilgrims will be affected by the government’s latest decision as they have already obtained the umrah visa which includes hotel and transportation in Saudi Arabia, valued at RM3,500 (US$833).
He said refunds are not possible as payments have already been made to suppliers in Saudi Arabia, and also because the decision to postpone was made by the government of Malaysia and not Saudi Arabia.