The Belitung regency government of the Bangka BelitungIslands Province has temporarily stopped promoting its tourism overseas after deciding to reallocate its budget to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are refocusing our budget from international tourism promotion as the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing,” said the Belitung tourism agency secretary, Annyta, to Antaranews on Friday, June 4.

Prior to the pandemic, the Belitung administration had spent a large amount of money to promote its tourism to the international community with examples being the tourism ad at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

The tourism agency also noted that the lack of international flights at its local airport was the reason visitations had nose dived, especially from Malaysia and Singapore. The two countries topped the list of visitors to Belitung.

“The market share was also huge at the time, which is why we strongly promoted Belitung’s tourism,” said Annyta. However, Belitung will continue to spend its budget to attract domestic tourists.

Source : https://en.tempo.co/read/1468932/belitung-halts-promoting-international-tourism-focuses-on-covid-19