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At least 10,000 Chinese tourists canceled their trips to Bali Island, Indonesia, due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China. /VCG Photo
At least 10,000 Chinese tourists canceled their trips to Bali Island, Indonesia, due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, which caused many airlines to cancel flights to and from China, the chairwoman of Indonesia Travel Agent Association, Elly Hutabarat, said on Thursday.
The coronavirus outbreak will certainly cast a negative economic influence on Indonesia's tourism industry, according to the association.
China is Indonesia's second-largest tourist source nation after Malaysia. In 2019, a total of 1.9 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia, representing nearly 13 percent of the overall foreign tourist visits, according to data from Statistics Indonesia. The target previously set by Indonesia's president was to attract 10 million Chinese tourists annually to the tropical country.
During the Spring Festival holiday in 2019, Indonesia, ranked third in the most popular overseas travel destinations among Chinese tourists list, after Thailand and Japan.
However, Hutabarat thinks it's probably too soon to gauge the economic loss the coronavirus will bring, and she believes there is hope that China might be able to get the virus under control soon.
"The coronavirus outbreak will definitely affect Indonesia's tourism. However, the severity of the impact would depend on how long it would take for medication or vaccines for the virus to be developed," she said.
The outbreak of SARS between 2002 to 2003 also affected tourism in Indonesia. Seventeen years later, "probably the medicine can be found faster because there is a more advanced technology, but we do not yet know how long the process will take," said Hutabarat.
"Once it's discovered, we will get back to normal soon," she added.
Not only is Indonesia being influenced as a tourism destination, but Chinese tourists are also canceling trips to other countries as well due to the concern of the coronavirus spreading and the fact that many airlines are momentarily canceling flights to China.
Chinese tourists made 149 million overseas trips in 2018, with total spending amounting to 130 billion U.S. dollars, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy. As the world's fastest-growing tourism market, the slumping overseas-bound travel by Chinese tourists will inevitably blow the global tourism industry and the retail industry.
