Yogyakarta International Airport Will Help Increase 15 Percent Of Tourists To DIY

JAKARTA - The existence of a new airport in DIY, Yogyakarta International Airport provides new hope for an increase in tourist visits. Even the Yogyakarta City Government hopes that there will be a 15 percent increase in tourist arrivals if the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

"If this pandemic ends, we hope that there will be an increase of around 15 percent of tourist arrivals in the early post-pandemic phase compared to tourist visits during 2019," Deputy Mayor of Yogyakarta Heroe Poerwadi was quoted as saying from Antara, Thursday, September 3.

According to him, as a City of Tourism, Yogyakarta relies heavily on tourist visits as the main driver of the city's economy. The operation of the new airport in Kulon Progo Regency, continued Heroe, is a breath of fresh air for the City of Yogyakarta to develop the tourism industry and at the same time accelerate the rate of economic growth in order to realize people's welfare.

"Moreover, the capacity of the new airport is many times the capacity at Adi Sutjipto Airport. It can be up to 20 million passengers. Of course, we really hope there will be an increase in the number of tourist visits. But then the COVID-19 pandemic occurred which affected all aspects of social and economic life , "he said.

Even so, Heroe remains optimistic that the existence of Yogyakarta International Airport remains a strong magnet to attract tourists to Yogyakarta, especially if there are many direct flights to Yogyakarta, both domestic and international flights.

"Actually, at this time, Yogyakarta is still benefiting because there are two operating airports. Adi Sutjipto also still serves several domestic flights," he said.

In order to welcome the increase in tourist visits, Yogyakarta has made various preparations such as "rebranding" the Tourism Village and preparing region-based destinations with special interest tours, such as cycling around the village to enjoy the heritage and social life of the community.

Apart from that, he continued, it was also necessary to anticipate an increase in traffic volume that could potentially cause congestion.

"I think it must be balanced with traffic management improvements so that traffic flows smoothly," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) DIY Deddy Pranawa Eryana also hopes a lot from YIA's operations.

"Hopefully, the existence of YIA can increase tourist visits to Yogyakarta and of course will have an impact on increasing hotel occupancy," he said.

During the pandemic, hotel and restaurant businesses in DIY suffered a heavy blow because almost no tourists came, even a number of hotels and restaurants chose to temporarily close their businesses.

At this time, conditions are gradually improving even though they have not fully recovered like they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Hotel occupancy on weekends is on average 60 percent for star hotels and 30 percent for non-star hotels. However, this occupancy only occurs in hotels in the city center, not evenly across all hotels," he said.