TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) said the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) industry in Jakarta was predicted to plummet by more than 95 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The MICE industry in Jakarta has decreased drastically,” said KADIN MICE manager Wisnu Budi Sulaeman in Jakarta, Wednesday, August 4.

Wisnu, who is also a MICE practitioner, said the service industry was hit hardest as it could no longer hold business meetings, exhibitions, and incentive trips because of the potential to cause crowds. Many of the human resources (HR) supporting the service industry were also unemployed due to the business closure.

The impact was not only felt by the MICE industry but also by business actors from multiple sectors, such as food, creative economy, transportation, sanitation, health, up to other small businesses.

The drop in MICE business, Wisnu added, caused the players to no longer be able to pay the bank interest. Although there was a credit restructuring policy, he argued it has not been carried out in a structured fashion.

In the discussion led by the Acting Head of the Jakarta Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, Gumilar Ekalaya, Wisnu said Jakarta is one of the barometers for the MICE industry in the country. Based on the Bank Indonesia (BI) data in 2019, 53.6 percent of foreign tourists visited the capital city for business, including MICE activities.

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