Bad News From Toraja, 7 Hotels And 20 Restaurants Closed Due To Pandemic: Tourists Difficulty Reaching This Area

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Toraja Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), which oversees Tana Toraja (Tator) and North Toraja, South Sulawesi, stated that seven hotels and 20 restaurants had closed their business or closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairman of the Toraja PHRI, Yohan Tangkesalu, in Rantepao North Toraja said the seven restaurants that were closed were dominated by the 1-star hotel category. They could not survive the decline until there were no tourist visits, while operational costs must remain available.

"In terms of hotels under the auspices of the PHRI, there are about seven hotels with mostly 1 star and about 20 restaurants that have been closed during this pandemic since last year", he said, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, September 8.

PHRI Toraja noted that 1-4-star inns and hotels are totaling around 58 hotels and inns, while there are 112 restaurants with a total of 3000 employees.

Yohan admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic hit the joints of tourism hard by restricting people's movements, including the closure of the airport so that domestic and foreign tourists would have difficulty reaching Toraja.

However, Yohan realizes that the various government policies are for the common good, to protect the public from the Coronavirus which has killed thousands of people in South Sulawesi.

PHRI Toraja has not remained silent with the outbreak of the pandemic since March 2020. This non-natural disaster was then responded to by various strategies from PHRI Toraja.

Yohan said that there were two approaches, namely from the organizational and government sectors.

"From an organizational perspective, PHRI has spoken to PLN, PT Telkom, and PDAM to provide a payment policy, with compensation payments can be at least two weeks late", he said.

Meanwhile, with the government, PHRI has discussed with the Regents of Tator and North Toraja to obtain a 10 percent tax exemption. As a result, hotels and restaurants in Toraja are tax-free for three months from August to November 2020.

In addition, PHRI also invites tourism actors to carry out smart promotions and be more relining with digital homes.

"So we push tourism-related content, content creation and collaboration with several MSMEs so that they participate in activating the tourism economy", explained Yohan.