"This is good news for our tourism industry. Hopefully, the pandemic's condition next year would show a positive trend, so there will be relaxation in the tourism sector," Chusmeru stated on Wednesday.
Local governments also should be prepared to facilitate tourism recovery with budgetary support from the government.
"Five aspects are covered in the 2022 tourism recovery program. First, accessibility. Some areas, with beautiful tourist attractions and historical value, have poor accessibility, such as narrow roads, traffic jams, lack of public transportation, and difficulty of internet access," he remarked.
The second aspect is tourist attractions. The lack of cultural arts attractions and handicrafts at tourist attractions has failed to attract tourists to spend, thereby resulting in low economic income for the region.
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The third is access to amenities. Tourists require convenience and comfort for them during their travel while visiting tourism destinations.
"Tourists surely want clean and comfortable lodging with adequate parking, no littering area, clean toilet with running water, and so on," Chusmeru expounded.
The tourism expert noted that the participation of tourism players also plays a major role. Innovation, adaptation, and collaboration of all tourism players and stakeholders are deemed necessary for tourism recovery in 2022.
"Local governments should create new tourism products, adapt to the tourism market and tourist behavior after the pandemic, and also collaborate with various stakeholders in the tourism sector," he stated.
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The fifth aspect is tourism promotion. After the pandemic, the government along with tourism players should redesign tourism promotion strategies after taking into account the characteristics and motives of tourists that have changed after the pandemic.
"Tourists will look for destinations and tourist objects with recreational and healthy elements. Hence, a rebranding of tourist destinations is needed," he stated.
Meanwhile, as earlier reported, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated that the government had reserved a budget of Rp9.2 trillion to support recovery of the tourism sector in 2022 from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Minister Mulyani remarked that the budget will be utilized to develop tourism and the creative economy based on three aspects -- accessibility, attractions and accessibility -- as well as from the promotion side and participation of private actors.
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Translator: Wuryanti P, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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