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Coronavirus scare takes toll on North Sulawesi tourism
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Foreign tourists arrive at Lihaga Island. According to the North Sulawesi administation, Chinese tourists comprised 90 percent of foreign tourists visit in North Sulawesi in 2018. (JP/Riza Roidila Mufti)
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oncerns over the coronavirus outbreak have begun to take a toll on tourism in North Sulawesi – a popular destination for Chinese visitors – as the province reported declining international tourist numbers in the past week.
The Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) chairperson in North Sulawesi, Merry Karouwan, said concerns regarding the viral outbreak had caused foreign arrivals in the province, particularly those coming from China, to plummet.
“Direct flights from China to Manado have been temporarily grounded, directly affecting tourism in North Sulawesi. I hope this will all pass soon,” she said on Wednesday.
She said the current situation had left the province with just 30 percent of the usual international arrivals, directly impacting local businesses, including hotels that have been rendered largely vacant, as collective anxiety over the deadly virus grows.
“Financial circulation in the region has sputtered. Restaurants, coffee shops, chartered buses, tour guides and other sources of revenue have been hit hard amid the coronavirus outbreak,” she said, adding that the province had also recorded declining numbers of tourists from countries other than China.
Read also: Govt to lure more citizens to visit local destinations as tourism copes with virus fears
Aston Hotel representative in Manado, Sven, said the present outlook stood in stark contrast to the thriving business climate just a few weeks ago, when the management handled an influx of Chinese tourists as usual.
“Chinese tourists usually account for 10 percent of foreign visitors staying at our hotel. [The current situation] has had quite an impact on our income,” he said.
The country’s tourism sector has been trudging through a tumultuous period since the government grounded all flights to and from mainland China due to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province.
Thousands of Chinese tourists are at risk of being stranded in Bali as a result of the government’s decision. Many are hoping to get a visa extension as the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread back home.
However, the viral outbreak has yet to have any significant impact on a number of destinations in the country that are less popular among Chinese tourists, such as East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
Read also: Chinese tourists' favorite places in Indonesia
“Our tourism is free from any disruption caused by the deadly virus, as Chinese tourists only represent a small number of foreign visitors in NTT,” said ASITA chairperson Abed Frans.
Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Wishnutama said the government would focus on attracting domestic tourists to popular destinations in the country to ensure that the sector remained lucrative and healthy.
“I, along with the transportation minister [Budi Karya Sumadi], will discuss the matter with about 30 airlines that are probably able to reroute to domestic destinations and, therefore, support local tourism,” he said on Tuesday.
He estimated that the country would lose about US$4 million as a result of flight cancellations to mainland China.
Chinese tourists made up the second-highest number of foreign tourists visit to Indonesia, after Malaysia, last year. Around 1.9 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia from January to November 2019, representing nearly 13 percent of overall foreign tourist visits, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS). (rfa)
