In order to reduce the number of Covid-19 patients in Indonesia, the government must implement a large-scale social restriction policy and restrict access to and from Indonesia. This policy, of course, led to a decrease in state revenue in the tourism sector by 20.7 billion rupiah. In addition, the policy has a direct impact on Indonesian tourism workers.
According to BPS 2020 data, 409 thousand people have lost their jobs. In 2021, the tourism situation will have not improved. It is even worse. The number of foreign tourists who came to the country totaled only 1.56 million, which is about 61.57% less than last year. It is certain that the number of tourism workers who have lost their jobs is even greater.
The government is doing various things to save Indonesian tourism. The government has provided support for tourism activities as well as hotel accommodation for health workers. The Government Incentive Assistance (BIP) budget for tourism and creative economy sector players this year has been increased to 60 billion rupiah.
This is equivalent to a 3-fold increase compared to 2020, which had a budget of 24 billion rupiah. In addition, the Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environmental Sustainability (CHSE) program, which is part of the Indonesia Care/I Do Care program, was launched by the government. The aim of the program is to enhance the capacity of the tourism sector and the creative economy to apply the principles of cleanliness, health, safety, and environmental sustainability to every aspect of their activities.
Then the government is collaborating with other ministries and institutions, including the COVID-19 Task Force, to carry out massive and broad vaccination activities for the community related to the tourism sector. The government’s step to encourage tourism to continue is to increase and encourage domestic tourists to travel, which, of course, is supported by strict health protocols.
In addition to various internal efforts, increasing tourism can be done through external efforts as well, namely using diplomacy. There are various forms of diplomacy, including political diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, economic diplomacy, and various other forms of diplomacy. Diplomatic actors in this modern era are already diverse. Besides state actors such as governments, non-state actors such as society, companies, experts, and non-governmental organizations can also participate in diplomacy.
The practice of diplomacy in promoting the tourism industry has been carried out by Indonesia for a long time. One of the most famous hashtags is “Wonderful Indonesia,” which is the commitment of the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to promote various destinations in the archipelago for domestic and international tourism.
In its execution, various diplomatic efforts have been carried out, including cultural diplomacy, namely by conducting cultural exchanges organized by the government, such as the Indonesian Cultural House, Student Exchange, Indonesian Cultural Arts Scholarships, and Cultural Exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition, the government collaborates with culinary business players to carry out culinary diplomacy, or gastrodiplomacy.
Where they introduce Indonesian specialties abroad through culinary festivals and open houses. Using cultural diplomacy, Indonesia wants to build a positive image of itself through the beauty and uniqueness of its own culture, which will make it more appealing to foreign tourists, so they will want to come to Indonesia.
Forms of diplomacy and formal cooperation between countries are also carried out by the government. Among them are bilateral cooperation, regional cooperation, and paradiplomacy. Bilateral cooperation is cooperation between two countries. To increase tourism, the two countries cooperate by holding meetings and promoting tourism in their respective countries. Regional cooperation is not much different in practice, where countries in the same region meet and diplomacy in a regional forum, to seek to increase tourism visits, both from within the region and outside the region.
Paradiplomacy is also a unique diplomacy in the modern era where diplomacy is carried out at the level of cities within a country and those in other countries. One of the forms is cooperation through sister provinces or sister cities. This collaboration can affect many aspects, one of which is tourism. Through this inter-city collaboration, it can provide a forum for cultural exchange programs and the exchange of cultural actors.
