Slowly But Surely, Hotel And Restaurant Workers In Yogya Who Had Been Laid Off Are Starting To Return To Work

Photo by Farhan Abas on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The Yogyakarta Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association said that some workers who had been laid off due to the decrease in guests during the COVID-19 pandemic began to return to work in line with the expansion of tourism activities.

"But not all of them have returned to work. Only about 30 percent of the approximately 12,000 workers," said Chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) DIY Deddy Pranawa Eryana in Yogyakarta, Wednesday, November 24.

According to him, hotel and restaurant businesses in DIY have not been able to re-employ all workers because they still have to make operational cost efficiency.

“However, conditions are not good yet. The current situation still requires business actors to be more efficient,” he said.

He said the pandemic for almost two years had really hit hotel and restaurant business players because of the significant reduction in guests and the high operational costs they had to bear.

Therefore, continued Deddy, hotel and restaurant businesses, especially those who are members of PHRI DIY, have a strong commitment to always keep economic and tourism activities running well in line with efforts to handle the pandemic.

During the last four weeks, PHRI DIY recorded a significant increase in hotel occupancy, especially at the end of last week which could reach 80 percent in all areas.

The 80 percent occupancy is calculated based on the maximum number of hotel rooms that can be rented out, which is 70 percent of the total rooms in each hotel.

"This must be maintained. We are very careful so that clusters of transmission do not appear between hotels and restaurants that are our members by implementing strict health protocols," he said.

He also hopes that hotel and restaurant business actors outside the PHRI will also implement a similar commitment so that the economy from tourism can be maintained.

"Including the end of the year holidays. We hope that the implementation of strict health protocols will be the main requirement and there will be no travel bans," he said.

Until now, PHRI noted that a number of hotels had booked up to 75 percent of reservations for year-end holidays.

However, hotel businesses have not prepared packages for year-end holidays because they are still waiting for rules and policies from the government regarding the plan for implementing PPKM Level 3 nationally.