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Tourism faces PPKM level 3 during Christmas, New Year holiday
The negative implication of implementing PPKM level 3 is that business activities will be reduced.
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ublic activity restrictions (PPKM) level 3 will be reinstated in the upcoming year-end holidays. The official rules for level 3 curbs are contained in Home Ministerial Instruction No. 62/2021. The level 3 rules are in effect from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2, 2022. This policy is carried out as an effort to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases and the spread of a new variant, Omicron.
The reimplementation of PPKM level 3 certainly has positive and negative implications. The positive side is that by suppressing the level of community mobility, the spread of COVID-19 can also be suppressed. PPKM level 3 was implemented to learn from last Christmas and New Year, when cases increased sharply in January and February. The highest additional cases at that time occurred on Jan. 30, with 14,518 cases in a day. But at that time, the vaccine was not yet available to the public. The first vaccination shot was only given to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Jan. 13.
Based on data from the Health Ministry, as of 6 p.m. on Sunday, 66.55 percent of Indonesia’s targeted population of 208.26 million people have received their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine and 45.36 percent have received their second. Meanwhile, 83.43 percent of those currently eligible for a booster have gotten their third shot.
With vaccination, at least the chances of severe symptoms and death can be controlled until we reach herd immunity. On the other hand, vaccination is also expected to drive economic activity.
We must not be careless because of the low number of cases in the last few weeks. We still have the potential to face the challenges of a new variant of COVID-19. The new variant is the Omicron, which was first discovered in South Africa. However, based on cases studied, this variant is not like the Delta variant. Omicron shows symptoms of severe fatigue, headaches and body aches. The variant has a greater chance of affection people 40 years of age or younger. For this reason, we must continue to increase vigilance and carry out strict health protocols.
The negative implication of implementing PPKM level 3 is that business activities will be reduced. The sectors directly affected are transportation and tourism, which will temporarily decline. Currently, tourism is still far from recovery. The data released by Statistic Indonesia (BPS) still does not show signs of a rapid increase in foreign tourists and hotel room occupancy rates. On Oct. 14, the government officially opened the borders for international arrivals via Bali and the Riau Islands. At this time, travelers from 19 countries were allowed to enter Indonesia. The granting of this permit refers to the standards of the World Health Organization.
According to WHO criteria, these 19 countries have confirmed cases of COVID-19 at level 1 and 2, with a low positivity rate. This means the 19 countries are considered quite safe for movement. Foreign tourists can only enter through Bali and the Riau Islands.
However, foreign tourist arrivals have not shown an increase. In fact, at the arrival gate of Riau Islands and Bali from July to September, no foreign tourists arrived. It is difficult for tourism to improve its performance.
In September, Bali's occupancy rate was only 9.46 percent, comprising locals or domestic tourists. When the average occupancy rate in Bali from March 2020 to September was only 8.9 percent, it was the lowest compared to other provinces.
The season of Christmas and New Year has been eagerly awaited by businesses in tourism, which hope the holiday can hoist their performance. Christmas and New Year will encourage people to travel. With so many people taking vacations, it will have an impact on increasing transportation passengers, hotel reservations and income for tourist attractions. However, we must be patient to prevent a spike in cases that might have a bigger impact if people's mobility is not limited during the Christmas and New Year holiday.
We believe that this policy is appropriate to mitigate the risk of an increase in cases and the emergence of Omicron. Economic activities have to be sacrificed. We also see that an increase in COVID-19 cases is positively correlated with an economic downturn. However, the government must still rethink extending the stimulus provided in 2022 as compensation for the policy.
The performance of the tourism in the coming Christmas and New Year season is predicted to decline, but not as badly as in the previous restrictions. The government advises the public to stay at home during the Christmas and New Year period and not to travel unless it is urgent.
With the implementation of level 3 restrictions, we will avoid the risk of a greater increase in cases. In addition, vaccinations must also be accelerated so that the risk of severe symptoms or death can be avoided. Discipline to strictly improve health protocols can reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 and new variants so that tourism can still survive and the pandemic can be controlled properly.
