TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called on his ministers to start preparing tourism promotion strategies for a new normal era.

“We must prepare a special promotion strategy for our tourism in this new normal era. I think we need to first focus on pushing for domestic tourism and attracting domestic tourists,” said the president in a limited meeting via teleconference from the Merdeka Palace, Thursday, May 28, 2020.

Thus, he asked the Tourism Ministry to identify tourist destinations that have a Basic Reproductive Number (R0) of Covid-19, which describes the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious coronavirus, under 1.

“So we can gradually open the tourism sector, but again under strict monitoring on health protocols,” he asserted. “No need to rush, the most important is that procedures and strict protocols must be adopted.”

The state head further stressed that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused changes in the global tourism trends, where health, hygiene, safety, and security issues are the main considerations for tourists before having a trip.

Entertainment now has also shifted to solo travel, wellness tourism, virtual tourism, and staycation. “Therefore, the tourism and creative economy industry must be able to adapt and develop innovations to these changing tourism trends,” he added.

Jokowi reminded that strict health protocol standards, massive dissemination, followed by trials and simulations must be carried out from now on. “Because this poses a big risk. Once there is an imported case of Covid-19, bad images of a tourism site will be attached and it will be difficult for us to fix it again,” he opined.

DEWI NURITA