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Wuhan coronavirus hits Hotel Indonesia Natour's business in Bali
State-owned hospitality company Hotel Indonesia Natour's three hotels in Bali experienced cancellations for 109 room reservations as of Thursday morning.
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Hotel Indonesia Natour president director Iswandi Said talks to reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing in Jakarta on Thursday. (JP/Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman)
T
he coronavirus outbreak has started to affect the business of state-owned hospitality company PT Hotel Indonesia Natour (HIN) with Chinese customers canceling their reservations.
The company's three hotels in Bali experienced cancellations for 109 room reservations as of Thursday morning. Its rooms cost Rp 1 million (US$73.49) on average per night. The company's customers from Wuhan were forced to cancel their reservations as the city is currently in lockdown.
"Bali has suffered the impact [of the outbreak] in the form of hotel reservation cancellations, especially due to cancelled flights from Wuhan," said president director Iswandi Said during a media briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said the company, which operates 14 hotels across Java, Sumatra and Bali, had yet to receive cancellations from its customers from Hong Kong and other Chinese cities.
Read also: Indonesia tourism, trade prone to Wuhan coronavirus impact
The Chinese government has been imposing lockdowns on at least 13 cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan, where the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was first identified on Dec. 31, in an attempt to contain the fast-spreading pneumonia-like virus.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Wuhan coronavirus has killed 170 people in China, with over 7,000 confirmed cases worldwide, mostly in the mainland, according to AFP. Indonesia, however, reported no confirmed cases to date.
Iswandi said his company was providing a help desk offering information about the outbreak and free masks to its customers.
Of the 1.29 million foreign tourists who visited Indonesia in November 2019, Chinese tourists accounted for 11.42 percent. China was the third-largest country of origin for foreign tourists, behind Malaysia and Singapore.
"Our company is not focused only on the Chinese market. We hope this outbreak does not affect our Australian and European markets," Iswandi said. (dfr)
