Nature Attractions are New Favorites for Indonesia’s Tourism Post-Pandemic

KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s tourism industry is projected to see nature attractions become an increasingly favored place to visit post-pandemic.

Wawan Rusiawan, Director of Strategic Studies at Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, believes that nature attractions will be the prima donna of the tourism industry once the coronavirus pandemic ends.

“Nature attractions are more popular and the ministry must put more focus on investing on those sites as it will be the prima donna post-pandemic.”

Read also: Tourism Ministry Plans to Reopen Indonesia's Nature Attractions due to Low Covid-19 Risk

During the coronavirus pandemic, domestic tourists have been the primary target market for Indonesia’s tourism industry as foreigners are unsure whether to take overseas trips or not.

Wawan’s assessment is that the foreigners who are likely to travel abroad are the younger individuals from the middle to the upper-class. Nevertheless, he believes that seeds of doubts will remain in their considerations to travel.

“Consumers need a new kind of travel experience. Perhaps a new type of vacationing will emerge such as ‘staycations’ and the like.”

Read also: Orchid Forest Cikole in Bandung, Indonesia is a Nature Attraction Worth Visiting

“Going forward, we must find a way to develop Indonesia’s tourism industry and to make it more interesting.”

Traveling in personal transport

Louis Alfonso K., Traveloka Accommodation’s Head of Strategic Partnership, said that during the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a growing trend of Indonesians traveling using their personal modes of transport.

He cites that budding preference to visit nearby towns or easy-to-access cities in the new normal is the reason behind the trend in Indonesia.

“Consumers prefer to travel in their personal transportation. That is why cities in Java are easy to reach due to the new toll roads that have been built connecting West Java, East Java, and Central Java in an integrated way.”

(Writer: Nabilla Ramadhian | Editor: Kahfi Dirga Cahya)

Source: https://travel.kompas.com/read/2020/11/24/203900127/pasca-pandemi-covid-19-wisata-alam-bakal-jadi-primadona