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View all search resultsYogya's tourism firms need tourists more than financial aid
Tourism businesspeople in Yogyakarta say financial aid alone will not help them survive if there are too few visitors.
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T
ourism businesspeople in Yogyakarta have demanded that the government establish clear and consistent regulations regarding tourist visits to the area, as the pandemic has pushed down the number of visitors.
Sugihartono, who manages the province’s popular ecotourism destination Dolandeso Boro, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that working capital loans alone would not help his business survive if the visitor turnout remained low.
Sugihartono said government regulations only allowed his business to serve 30 visitors per day, less than 10 percent of the average 500 daily visitors at the tourism spot before the pandemic.
“We don’t need working capital aid, because we still need to turn the capital [into revenue]. Meanwhile, visitors want certainty on whether they may visit us or not,” he said.
Rusli Hariyanto, who works in the travel business in Yogyakarta, canceled his plan to return to the province from his hometown of Situbondo, East Java, following the reimposition of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in Jakarta due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases. Most of his customers are from Jakarta.
“To us, what matters is not the working capital but whether we have guests or not,” he said. “The government’s unpredictable policy on COVID-19 has caused us difficulties.”
The pandemic has depressed the tourism industry as it prompted authorities to enforce mobility restrictions in various regions to curb virus transmission. It has wiped out around Rp 85 trillion (US$5.7 billion) of Indonesia’s tourism revenue so far this year, according to data from the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI).
