However, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the city’s tourism hard, with hotels suffering a drop in occupancy rates to as low as zero percent. In the pre-coronavirus days, occupancy ranged between 70 and 80 percent.

Thirty out of 33 star-rated hotels in Bogor were forced to close temporarily at the beginning of the outbreak.

It has been over eight months since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the first COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, and Bogor’s hospitality industry began to see signs of a gradual recovery starting July.

According to the Hotel General Manager Association’s (IHGMA) Bogor Raya chapter, the city’s hotel occupancy rate reportedly reached around 70 percent in November.

Bogor’s hotel occupancy rate is also the highest in West Java, standing at 39.32 percent in July and 56.82 percent in August, while the occupancy rate in other cities only reached 27.17 percent in July and 34.95 percent in August.

Antara news agency reported that the recovery was driven by large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), which emphasized the adaptation of so-called “new normal” habits.

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