JAKARTA, INDIA, 15 AUGUST, 2020 (GPN): In  an online discussion on Saturday with the Media State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said, “We don’t want that the program to make Indonesia healthy becomes compromised by the plan to allow foreign tourists to come, and it creates possible new clusters,” Thohir said “Therefore, the committee has decided to review this plan to allow foreign tourists to come.”

Indonesia is reviewing a plan to reopen its tourist areas to foreign visitors amid concerns that such a move could compromise the country’s effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, added Thohir.

Thohir, who is overseeing the daily operations of the country’s coronavirus taskforce, was responding to a question if the government will go ahead with a plan to reopen Bali, Indonesia’s most popular tourist spot, on Sept. 11 as scheduled.

Foreign holidaymakers, who generate billions of dollars in revenue, remain a critical part of Indonesia’s economy, he said. The world’s fourth-most populous nation remains under the grip of the pandemic with the number of cases quintupling since the end of May.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan said that all non-essential foreign visitors will remain barred from entering the country, while the government will try to boost domestic tourism to keep the hospitality sector afloat.

“With regard to foreign tourists, I think we will not be welcoming them until the end of the year,” Pandjaitan said during the virtual forum with Indonesian businesspeople, shelving a plan laid out by the provincial government of the holiday island of Bali — Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination — to reopen for international visitors on Sept. 11.

Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana, head of the Bali Tourism Board, said industry players in Bali were ready for the Sept. 11 plan but acknowledged that the central government’s decision to keep foreign arrivals suspended “must be based on a more urgent reason.”
“There could be a macro outlook behind Jakarta’s decision, and it could be for everyone’s greater good,” Adnyana told GPN.

According to Umrah tour operators, about 1 million Indonesians travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage each year, with many of them also visiting other sites in the region.
The COVID-19 outbreak has shattered Indonesia’s target to welcome 17 million foreign visitors this year, dealing a major blow to its national revenue. According to Adnyana, tourism in Bali alone contributed 120 trillion to 150 trillion rupiahs ($10 billion) a year to the country’s coffers.

Earlier On Friday, President Joko Widodo said in his 2021 budget speech before the parliament that 14.4 trillion rupiahs would be allocated for the tourism industry’s recovery with a focus on developing several main destinations: Lake Toba in North Sumatra; Borobudur Temple in Central Java; Mandalika in Lombok island; Labuan Bajo on the Flores island, which serves as a gateway to see the Komodo dragon on Komodo Island and Mount Kelimutu, which has three volcanic crater lakes of different colors; and Likupang Beach in North Sulawesi.

The newly appointed Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia in Mumbai Agus P. Saptono had called on the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyri at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai pre Lock-down period in Maharashtra State, India.

In Jakarta, today to Mark the 74th Independence Day of India the Embassy of India invited the members of Indian community and friends of India to join it on its YouTube channel to celebrate the occasion amidst restrictions and precautions due to the coronavirus. ENDS