By LEONARDUS JEGHO in Jakarta | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2021-01-25 09:59
Tourists
ride on boats modeled on a traditional style during a dolphin-watching
excursion at sunrise off Bali's Lovina Beach in Indonesia on Oct 30,
2020. [SONNY TUMBELAKA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE]
Country counts on return of inflow of Chinese that dried up due to virus
Amid
rising relief and hope with vaccinations, countries such as Indonesia
are now looking to China for their economic recovery, at least for a
part of it in tourism.
Indonesia expects significant numbers of
Chinese tourist arrivals from this year, although it may be too early to
say that Southeast Asia's largest country will soon be ready enough for
tourist arrivals in the coming months.
For Indonesia, the most
at stake in the coming months is its capability to protect visitors from
COVID-19 with adequate facilities and healthcare networks, which was
seriously discussed in recent weeks by President Joko Widodo, the newly
appointed Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno and
other senior officials.
Nationwide vaccination for the country's 270 million people over and beyond the year is posing a daunting challenge.
By 2019 Indonesia was the world's third-most attractive tourist destinations for Chinese travelers, after Japan and Thailand.
Chinese
tourist arrivals made up the second-largest group after Malaysians
during the year, reaching 2.07 million, or nearly 13 percent of total
international arrivals, which reached 16.1 million.
In 2018
Indonesia received 2.1 million Chinese tourists, which ranked second to
the 2.5 million Malaysians. In that year Indonesia had 15.8 million
arrivals.
And last year, when Indonesian tourism suffered a
crushing blow due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it had only 3.5 million
inbound travelers between January and September. Last April the country
banned the incoming of leisure visitors "until the COVID-19 pandemic is
over". Figures on countries of origin of the 3.5 million tourists are
unavailable.
Tourism has developed into a dependable economic sector for Indonesia that in 2019 accounted for 5.5 percent of its GDP.
For
this, while boosting the development of tourism infrastructure and
facilities in different areas of the vast archipelago, Indonesia has
carried out large-scale promotions over the years to attract more
travelers, from China and other major source countries.
President
Joko Widodo has directly raised the issue of more Chinese visitors with
President Xi Jinping. The two countries signed a tourism collaboration
agreement in Bandung in April 2015, after the commemoration of the 60th
anniversary of the Asia Africa Conference in the West Java provincial
capital.
The effect of the Bandung agreement was mostly visible
in North Sulawesi from 2016 to 2019. Direct flights subsequently opened
to China have helped boost the popularity of that area among
holidaymakers.
Both countries are also encouraging more Chinese
tourists especially to visit "Bali and 10 New Bali destinations" such as
Lake Toba (North Sumatra), Labuan Bajo (East Nusatenggara), Mandalika
(West Nusatenggara) and Jakarta's Thousand Islands.
Under discussion
Moreover,
as coronavirus vaccines including Chinese products become available in
more and more countries from this year, governments and the tourism
industry are keeping an eye on the 100 million Chinese projected to make
outbound trips this year alone. Direct and chartered flights from China
are among those under discussion.
A forum at Lake Toba on Dec
18, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Indonesia-China bilateral
relations, focused on "Key super priority tourism destinations" that
aimed to attract Chinese investors to tourism infrastructure and
facility projects in Indonesia.
On exactly when Indonesia will
allow in foreign tourists, its Coordinating Maritime Affairs and
Investment Minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, said recently: "I think it will
be after the first vaccination … I think the situation (with the
pandemic) will begin to get better in May, or June, or July."
His
answer also expressed the hope many Indonesians now place in the
efficacy of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, which is being used across
the country. President Widodo received the first injection on Jan 13.
In
addition to being Indonesia's largest trading partner, China is its
third-largest source of overall investment, after Singapore and Japan,
as disclosed by the Investment Coordinating Board.
The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Indonesia expects significant numbers of Chinese tourist arrivals from this year as it longs to see tourists back
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