Hotel Entrepreneurs Want Sandiaga Uno To Help Postpone Paying Debt, Hariyadi Sukamdani: Mas Minister, Please Help

Etua General PHRI Hariyadi Sukamdani. (Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The tourism sector has been sluggish throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes the hotel and restaurant economy battered. As a result, hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs face the risk of default so that many cannot survive and enter the brink of bankruptcy.

General Chairman of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Entrepreneurs (PHRI) Hariyadi Sukamdani asked the government, through the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, to extend grant funds for businesses in the tourism sector this year.

"If possible, this can be extended. There are 101 regencies / cities, one is left behind, Makassar. Makassar hopes that tourism grants, if there is a change in allocation, can get a chance in the 2021 budget," he said in a virtual PHRI Rakernas, Thursday, March 18.

In addition, Hariyadi also asked for an additional allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine for tourism sector workers, especially those who are members of PHRI for around 120,000 doses.

"The allocation of vaccines for PHRI workers is only 92 thousand. If we look at those registered with PHRI, yesterday there were more than 120 thousand, Jakarta alone would be able to help 37 thousand," he said.

Furthermore, Hariyadi said vaccines for workers in the tourism sector were very important. Especially for airlines or airlines. According to him, if a pilot carrying a passenger is infected with COVID-19, it will make people afraid to fly with the airline.

"If the hotel is exposed, the owner can clean the rooms. If the airlines, the pilots have problems who want to fly them. This means vaccines for tourism workers are important. If they are not assisted, it will be troublesome because we interact directly with the public," he said.

Not only that, Hariyadi also asked for intervention from banks through restructuring. He said that if there is no intervention from banks, hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs will find it increasingly difficult to pay off debts.

For this reason, Hariyadi asked Sandiaga Uno to fight for policies to help hotels and restaurants survive.

"So, we also ask the Minister for this debt restructuring (Sandiaga Uno) to help monitor the struggle with the Ministry of Finance because without banking intervention there will likely be a very high default and prone to bankruptcy from the tourism sector," he said.

Hariyadi said that his party had held talks to discuss restructuring in the tourism sector with Executive Secretary I of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN) Raden Pardede.

"The problem of the structural mechanism of the work model we have already talked to with Pak Raden Pardede, the Coordinating Ministry for our will finalize of course the debt restructuring," he explained.