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President Joko Widodo visited the Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java, on Wednesday (March 30, 2022). ANTARA/HO-Biro Pers Sekretariat Presiden/FR - 

People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Speaker Lestari Moerdijat, in a statement on Friday, laid due emphasis on strengthening collaboration between related parties to revive the tourism sector and to encourage economic growth.

Moerdijat cited as an example the joint working of tourism industry actors with the international network and local tourism managers.

"Tourism actors with the international network must collaborate with managers of local tourism destinations that the people develop, such as Borobudur, so that the tourism sector can recover immediately," she noted.

During the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Tourism Strengthening workshop at the Borobudur Village Economic Hall, Central Java, on Friday, Moerdijat expressed belief that the targets determined by the national tourism sector can be achieved through sound coordination.

In addition to collaboration, strengthening the tourism actors' skills is necessary to realize the revival of the national tourism sector.

Specifically in Borobudur, Moerdijat expects that stakeholders and the public can utilize the momentum offered by Eid al-Fitr to trade and sell the products that they own.

The government has taken several policy improvement steps in the tourism sector for the post-COVID-19 pandemic period to revive the tourism sector and to encourage economic growth, she noted.

For instance, the government issued a policy that allows people to return home during Eid al-Fitr and reopens the door for international tourists this year.

Moerdijat expects that the people and tourism entrepreneurs would make the most of this opportunity for reviving the sector.

"The impact of the pandemic on tourism in Borobudur alone is very worrisome. Usually, it was visited by 3.8 million tourists per year, though now, it is only 400 thousand per year," she stated.

Moerdijat pointed to a similar condition also occurring at the national scale.

"The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry recorded that the number of international tourists in 2019 had reached 16.1 million people. Meanwhile, in 2020, it stood at 4.05 million people," she explained.

Moerdijat further noted that several locations in the Asia-Pacific had started to revive their tourism sector for the post-pandemic period.

With this, she expects that tourism actors in Indonesia can take a cue from Asia-Pacific nations on ways to revive the sector impacted by the pandemic//ANT