Regardless of the reopening of public spaces such as shopping centers, hotels and restaurants with health and safety rules in place, fear still lingers among the public over heading out of their homes, especially because a large number of new COVID-19 cases continue to be reported every day.

The Jakarta Post reported that the nation’s capital recorded 190 new confirmed cases on Thursday, followed by South Sulawesi with 165 new cases, South Kalimantan with 114 new cases and Bali with 113 new cases. Meanwhile, East Java reported the highest daily tally with 374 new cases.

Having canceled both business and leisure trips to San Sebastian and Amsterdam, New York and London, China, Mexico and Vietnam, CEO Linda Tan of building materials giant Sandimas continues to refrain from leaving town.

Linda says that she wants to make sure the world had “fully recovered” from the pandemic before traveling again; otherwise, she “still [wants] to stay home and avoid [COVID-19]”. And when she finally does resume traveling, she says that she will be closely following all health protocols like wearing a mask, bringing hand sanitizer and practicing physical distancing.

“I am an optimist. I hope by the time the pandemic is behind us, we can travel in a carefree manner like the good old days before the pandemic,” Linda said on Friday.

The few other avid travelers the Post talked to felt the same way.

CEO and founder David Soong of on-demand photography platform Sweet Escape said that he wished to travel “ASAP”, but he had nothing planned until the travel ban was lifted.

“I’m willing to travel to most places as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted, without a 14-day quarantine, or else it defeats the idea of going somewhere,” David told the Post by email.

As much as they might miss traveling, however, Linda and David both said that they hadn’t purchased any virtual tours that many establishments were now offering. Neither had they bought into the “buy now, stay later” packages that many hotels and resorts were offering.

“I figure I‘ll wait until the world recovers to do an actual tour,” said Linda. “I am very tempted, but I haven’t bought any packages yet because I’m not sure when the pandemic will be over. I don’t want to end up buying packages that I might not use, and I don’t want to go through the hassle of […] refunds again, just in case.”

She said that she had been refunded for hotels and most of the flights that she had to cancel, but that some airlines had insisted on giving her travel vouchers in lieu of a refund.

Read also: How are avid travelers coping during their time in lockdown?

Many people are in no rush to start traveling again, while others are mulling over the idea of traveling in Indonesia for their next trip, whenever that might be.

“Perhaps my next travel will be domestic,” said David, who had to cancel planned trips to Singapore, Italy and other destinations between March and June.

Meanwhile, founder and jewelry designer Wanda Ponika of Wanda House of Jewels said that she would probably travel to Bali in December, if she was sure it was safe to do so.

“I will go to Bali [when it’s safe], but it’s more to support my friends,” said Wanda, who has several good friends among the island’s hoteliers.

“I called a friend who owns Komaneka Resorts, and [suggested] the idea that maybe she should open her resorts [...] maybe not all rooms and villas, [and] with strict health protocols,” Wanda told the Post. She added that she had also encouraged her friends to travel to Indonesian destinations to support local tourism businesses.

Although she was very keen to travel again and support her friends, Wanda still stays put because of the high daily figures of new COVID-19 cases.

“I don’t think I’ll be ready to travel again in the near future, because I heard that there is a long pre-departure process at the airports, not to mention the risks during the trip. I feel that the pleasure we will get from traveling [again] isn’t worth the risk,” she said.

At the same time, she also expressed her wish that more people would be more disciplined in following the COVID-19 health protocols to reduce the daily toll.