Recovering Indonesia's Tourism Through Diplomacy

                                                                                                                                       

This is the english version of "Menyelamatkan Pariwisata Indonesia melalui Diplomasi" published at Kompasiana

Tourism is an essential part of the lifestyle of every individual. In general, tourism is the act and process of spending time away from home for recreation, relaxation, and pleasure seeking while taking advantage of the provision of commercial services. It is supported by various facilities and services provided by the community, businessmen, the government, and local governments.

Tourism has various benefits for both individuals and countries. For individuals, tourism is a way of knowing and getting to the world outside of everyday life. People can see and feel a variety of new experiences gained through these attractions, amenities, and tourism accessibility. 

As for the state, tourism is a very large source of foreign exchange, so it can contribute to the country’s economy and the welfare of the local community. Through tourism, the country can be recognized by the international community, so that it can build a positive image of a country that is useful in establishing relations between countries.

As a beautiful country, rich in nature and culture, Indonesian tourism has been worldwide since ancient times until now. Tourists from various countries flock to see the natural beauty of the tropics, beaches, and the uniqueness of Indonesia’s diverse culture. 

During the last five years from 2014 to 2018, the average growth rate of foreign tourists to Indonesia reached 14% per year, reaching a total of 15.8 million visits.

This number increased from an average annual growth of 9% for foreign tourists between 2009 and 2013. Then in 2019, the number of foreign tourist arrivals increased by 1.88 percent, with a total of 16.1 million visits. The majority of foreign tourists come from Malaysia, Singapore, China, Australia, Timor Leste, and a lot of other places.

As we entered 2020, the Corona Virus, also known as COVID-19, began to spread throughout the world. This has had a major impact on various sectors, especially tourism. According to data from UNCTAD, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism could cost the global economy more than $4 trillion in losses. In addition, job losses in tourism-related sectors are four times greater than in non-tourism sectors.

Indonesian tourism has also not been spared the impact caused by COVID-19. Based on data from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia decreased drastically in February 2020, and in April 2020, the number of tourists was only 158,000. 

You can imagine how small the income is. In addition, foreign tourists are dominated by Asian countries, especially China, which is the origin of the coronavirus. The total number of foreign tourists who came in 2020 was around 4 million, a drastic decrease from the number of visitors who came in 2019, which totaled 16.1 million.

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. 

Cooperation in these fields can encourage local tourism. For example, Yogyakarta has a sister city cooperation with the city of Kyoto in Japan. In addition, Bandung has para-diplomacy with Hamamatsu in Japan, Medan with Guangzhou in China, and many more. The activities carried out are cultural cooperation, education, and regional investment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic to date, the government has also made various diplomatic efforts to increase tourism by promoting tourism potential both now and in the future. Some of them have formal diplomacy, such as the diplomacy between Indonesia and Portugal carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. 

This collaboration discusses the potential for cooperation between the two countries in tourism and the creative economy, such as product development, exchanging experiences in sustainable tourism development, and sharing tourism marketing best practices, especially brand communication and online and offline market knowledge, between countries.

In addition to Portugal, formal diplomacy is also carried out by Indonesia and Greece, to collaborate and exchange information, so that Indonesian tourism can rise like Greek tourism and promote the beauty of Indonesian tourism to the Greek people. In addition, Indonesia will also carry out public diplomacy by establishing local events in Greece. Diplomacy at the regional level is also carried out by the Indonesian government with ASEAN countries, namely Cambodia. 

Through the 2022 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), the Indonesian government cooperates with Cambodia by continuing cooperation in the tourism sector, by signing a memorandum of understanding between the two countries. The renewal of this collaboration will focus on cooperation in promotion, marketing, destination management, sector cooperation, capacity building, events, and MICE.

Indonesian representatives abroad are also actively involved in innovating to promote Indonesian culture abroad. Like the cultural diplomacy and digital diplomacy carried out by the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna, Austria, by utilizing advances in information technology and holding many virtual cultural diplomacy activities. 

Various online activities have been carried out, including online Indonesian language learning, tourist film screenings, and cultural concerts in Indonesia linked to the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna website, social media, and cultural and culinary dialogues. Through this activity, it is hoped that it can build an image of Indonesia, which is rich in nature, culture, and the hospitality of its people.

According to the author, the government has been very active in promoting tourism through diplomacy and its instruments. However, there are still many things that can be done by both the government and the community. Indonesia has 10 priority tourism areas, namely Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Tanjung Kelayang in Bangka Belitung, Tanjung Lesung in Banten, the Thousand Islands, and Kota Tua in DKI Jakarta, Borobudur in Central Java, Bromo Tengger Semeru in East Java, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi , Mandalika in NTB, Labuan Bajo in NTT, and Morotai in North Maluku.

With the stipulation of these priority areas, it is hoped that local governments, both at the district, city and provincial levels, can actively carry out paradiplomacy to introduce local tourism and cultural areas so as to create a positive image of the beauty of Indonesia to the international community. Not only governments in priority tourism areas can also participate in para-diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, and digital diplomacy to promote tourism in their regions, for example, Aceh with its halal tourism and Papua by promoting Raja Ampat.

Apart from the government, the public can also be active in various public diplomacy activities to promote Indonesian tourism. The public can participate by introducing Indonesian tourism and culture through social media to the global community, creating artistic creations that build Indonesia’s image by Indonesian artists, and being active in student and cultural exchange activities abroad. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, meaning that our task of promoting tourism has not yet been completed. It would be nice if we as a society remain productive while playing a role in promoting tourism abroad, so that we can restore the Indonesian economy again.