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Still strolling: city walking tours survive the pandemic
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Multilingual: Using English- and Dutch-speaking guides, Bandung Good Guide was a favorite among international tourists. (Courtesy of Bandung Good Guide). (Personal archive/Courtesy of Bandung Good Guide)
As the "new normal" kicks in, travelers and the tourist sector have adapted to the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.
City walking tours were a popular leisure activity before the pandemic. They attracted locals and tourists from different backgrounds with similar interests. Some of these tours were pay-as-you-wish, while others had fixed fees.
Vera T. is the founder of Jakarta Walking Tour, which she created in 2014. She keeps her tours as private and as small as possible since she believes everyone in the group needs to get to know each other.
Vera used to handle people from all around the world. She held three to four tours each week, with as many as two sessions a day during the peak season. However, everything came to a grinding halt when the borders were closed. She held zero tours for months in 2020, and this year her team only guided one person from the United States for a single day.
"Museums being closed, limited seating in indoor facilities, dining restrictions — these are all very hard to see. It's sad," said Vera, explaining why she frequently had to cancel some of the tours. “More importantly, we can't give people our best walking tour experience with social distancing and unhealthy conditions."
Victoria Fitria, a guide and social media manager for Bandung Good Guide in West Java, saw no international tourists during the early pandemic.
"We purposely made this everyday walking tour program in Bandung for the European market since we have English- and Dutch-speaking guides," explained Fitria. Her team specialized in European tourists, but when cross-border travel was made impossible, they turned their focus on local visitors.
