The COVID-19 pandemic has a huge impact to the tourism sector in Bali. The central government is represented by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has a goal that regions can continue to make breakthroughs and encouragement to support tourism recovery in Bali.
Currently, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has officially launched the ‘We Love Bali’ program. This program is a form of education as well as a campaign for the implementation of CHSE (Clean, Healthy, Safety, Environment)-based health protocols for tourism and creative economy entrepreneurs and the people in Bali.
The ‘We Love Bali’ program was officially launched on Wednesday (14/10/2020). This program was officially launched by the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency, Wishnutama Kusubandio.
According to him, this program overall will involve 409 tourism industries and creative economy players, 8,421 workers and 4,800 participants from the general society from Bali Province.
“Through this campaign, it is hoped that it can form safety awareness which is slowly being created in the mindset of business people in Bali and also tourists,” Wishnutama said.
Wishnutama further explained that later the community will be invited to visit destinations and see the implementation of health protocols carried out by tourism businesses and the creative economy practitioners in Bali. Of course the community journey is also carried out with strict health protocols.
Meanwhile, there are 13 traveling programs (family trips). Each program will last for three days and two nights to various destinations in Bali. The first phase of the family trips program had been previously carried out a while ago to destinations in Denpasar, Lovina and Kintamani.
The Bali Tourism Office recorded economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March to July 2020 reaching IDR 48.5 trillion or around IDR 9.7 trillion per month.
“Through the ‘We Love Bali’ program, it is hoped that it can support the Bali tourism industry to start moving and be enthusiastic about returning to work as well as providing education in implementing new custom protocols for tourism business actors, the community managing tourist destinations, and the society who participate in these activities,” he said.
“In addition, through this program, it is hoped that it can increase the sense of love and responsibility of the community towards the preservation of Bali’s nature and culture, as well as the promotion of tourism destinations in Bali,” Wishnutama explained.