Indonesia will cut prices of airline tickets by 40 to 50 percent in a move to encourage tourism development amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (Photo: jakartaglobe.id)
Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia will cut prices of airline tickets by 40to 50 percent in a move to encourage tourism development amidst the coronavirusdisease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said on February 26 thatthe Government is aiming to lure more tourists to ten destinations deemed mostaffected by the outbreak, namely Batam,Bali, Yogyakarta, Silangit, Malang, Labuan Bajo, Lombok, Manado, TanjungPandan, and Tanjung Pinang.
This programme is expected toboost domestic tourist arrivals by 25 percent and international arrivals by 10percent. Cheaper hotel rates will make up an additional 5 percent, Budisaid, adding the government hoped that the number of tourist arrivals will pick up30-40 percent to keep tourism business activities going in those tourist attractions.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Iindrawati saidthe government will spare 443 billion IDR (31.9 million USD) from thestate budget to reduce ticket fares on domestic flights by 30 percent, whilethree state-owned enterprises including oil and gas company Pertamina andairport operators Angkasa Pura and Airnav will offer incentives to reduce fueland ground handling costs, the key components in determining ticket fares.
Thecombined incentives could reduce airfares by up to 50 percent, she said.
Inaddition, a budget of nearly 300 billion IDR has been allocated for a programme to lure international visitors, including 98.5 billion IDR set aside fordomestic airlines and travel agencies so they can provide discountsfor foreign tourists.
TheFinance Ministry will also pay 33 district and municipal governments 3.3trillion IDR to suspend hotel and restaurant taxes for six months.
TheTourism and Creative Economy Ministry will receive 103 billion IDR forpromotional campaigns, 25 billion IDR for tourism events and 72 billion IDR tohire social media influencers whose main task will be toinform visitors that Indonesia is free from COVID-19.
Indonesiarecorded 16.1 million international arrivals last year, up slightly by 1.8percent from the previous year.
However,the country's reliance on Chinese visitors – who made up nearly 13 percentof the total international arrivals last year – makes it particularlyvulnerable to the global tourism downturn caused by the COVID-19outbreak.
Thegovernment has estimated that a sharp fall in Chinese arrivals may costthe country 2.8 billion USD in potential revenue losses this year./.
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Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (Photo: jakartaglobe.id) 
