VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to cooperate in rebuilding tourism and the creative economy which were impacted by Covid-19 pandemic. One of them is by building a joint tourism corridor. Marketing Deputy at Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, Nia Niscaya in a written statement received by Antara News Agency on Saturday (20/6) said that Malaysia is an important partner for Indonesian tourism. Malaysia has been one of the biggest sources of foreign tourists to Indonesia.

In 2019, 2.09 million tourists from Malaysia visited Indonesia. That was stated by Nia Niscaya when being a guest speaker in Network Industry Travel Talkshow with Malaysian Tourism Arts and Culture Minister Dato’ Sri Nancy Shukri with the topic “Regional Tourism Collaborative Opportunities Post-Covid19” on Friday evening (19/6).

According to Nia Niscaya, Covid-19 had brought about fundamental changes for tourists who will travel. For international travel, tourists will prefer having shorter trips. Therefore, Malaysia becomes one of potential partners to re-grow international travel.

She also explained, the cooperation is how to get the world's trust that the two countries have successfully controlled corona-virus spread and agreed to create a travel corridor.

Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry had prepared a handbook that refers to global standards as a manual for businesspeople in tourism and creative economy. This handbook is a more detailed derivative from protocol under development by the Health Ministry based on recommendations from the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry for tourism and creative economy.

Nia Niscaya further states that good implementation of the protocol is expected to enhance tourists’ trust. This is important because trust is a key in recovery acceleration.

Similarly, Malaysian Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture, Dato’ Sri Nancy Shukri said that Malaysia really enjoys cooperation with Indonesia. According to her, Indonesia and Malaysia must be able to increase cooperation to develop tourism. Tourism must be able to adapt well to re-grow tourists’ trust to travel and stay longer to many destinations.