Now that tourism has picked up pace during the pandemic with tourist attractions reopened across Indonesia following eased restrictions, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno is urging everyone to keep their masks on — including when taking selfies.
According to Sandiaga, trial reopenings of 20 tourist attractions in regions categorized under Level 3 and 2 of the Enforcement of Restrictions on Public Activities (PPKM) have shown some positive outcomes, which he said is due to the implementation of the CHSE standard (Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environment Sustainability) and the use of the integrated health and mobility tracking app PeduliLindungi.
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Even so, Sandiaga pointed out that tourists are still acting loose on some health protocols, especially where selfies are concerned.
“Especially when taking photos, when they’re taking selfies, tourists tend to take off their face masks, even after we tell them not to,” Sandiaga said.
He urged the public to keep their masks on, even if it’s during a visit to open-air destinations.
Furthermore, Sandiaga urged officials to fix problems related to PeduliLindungi, especially after technical errors resulted in long queues occuring when visitors are checking in to a venue.
Sandiaga also further explained that there are no official provisions yet on allowing visitors below 12 years old to enter public facilities, and as such it’s still the prerogative of each tourist attraction to permit their entry — though their parents must be vaccinated and are color-coded green on PeduliLindungi.
The government plans on allowing more tourist attractions on a trial basis, and Sandiaga said PeduliLindungi could become the new standard for the tourism and creative economy sector.
As tourism recommences, the minister has made note on the occurrence of revenge tourism, or the high influx of tourists as social restrictions eased, further cautioning that declining COVID-19 cases shouldn’t be met with eased implementation of health protocols.
“The virus keeps mutating, don’t let the [current] good levels of PPKM be interpreted as a euphoric freedom,” Sandiaga said.
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