TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is formulating the travel bubble scheme for foreign tourists visiting Indonesia, in order to boost the tourism sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tourism ministry’s deputy of destination and infrastructure development, Hari Sungkari, explained the scheme will target certain locations.

“For example, country A with Bali or country A with Bali and another region, or country A with a tourist destination in a province,” Hari said in an online conference in Jakarta, Friday, August 7.

He hoped there will be a deal under this scheme that will be signed until the end of this year, yet he was not certain of foreign tourist arrival in the near future. Hari has yet to confirm about visitors from which country and with which Indonesian regions that are able to implement the travel bubble scheme. The targets of this scheme are still limited to foreign representatives, investors, and businesses.

The government will work together with countries with good health management and have low Covid-19 cases, Hari went on, that include South Korea, Taiwan, and China.

This year, foreign tourist visits dropped around 2.8 until 4 million people from the government’s target of 18 million foreign tourists. In addition, domestic tourist visits only reached 140 million people, far high from the target of 310 million visitors, said Hari.

He expected the foreign tourist visit will hit to 18 million people in 2024 or 2025, while the domestic tourism to recover in 2023.

Read: NTT Limits Number of Tourist in Komodo National Park

Antara