Hipmi Suggests Private Hotels With Lower Occupancy, Become Quarantine Places For COVID-19 Patients

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The impact of the COVID-19 virus on the tourism sector in Indonesia has been severe. The decline in occupancy which was very drastic and took place very quickly caused hundreds of hotels throughout Indonesia to temporarily close their operations.

In fact, the current hotel occupancy rate in Indonesia is already below 9 percent. Due to the low number of visitors, hundreds of hotels were forced to temporarily close their operations.

Seeing these conditions, Deputy Chairperson of the Central Executive Board of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (BPP HIPMI), Anggawira said, the closed hotel network could be used as a place for people who are under surveillance (ODP) and patients under surveillance (PDP) COVID-19.

He said he provided a solution for the government to function hundreds of closed hotels as independent isolation for COVID-19, considering that many COVID-19 referral hospitals could no longer accommodate them.

"This hotel chain, instead of being closed, has no customers, the government can take advantage of it and the food supply chain can also be obtained from food traders whose turnover has decreased drastically. So, the business ecosystem is alive, funds for handling COVID-19 can be disbursed by this mechanism so that the business continues. "said Anggawira in his written statement, Friday, April 3.

Anggawira continued, the central government has poured out subsidies to local governments (pemda) to counteract the impact of COVID-19 in the form of grants worth IDR 3.3 trillion, so that local governments can rent these hotels.

According to him, the government disbursed the subsidy by means of the intervention that could land hundreds of closed hotels.

"So, we provide a solution so that this government can take advantage of the hotel network to quarantine people who suspect COVID-19 because the hospital capacity is limited," he said.

Many hotels that think they are better off are temporarily closed. And of course hoteliers have many considerations which is better, whether to close or stay open. Because the hotel also has operational subsidies in it.

By using it as a place for quarantine, observation and isolation of ODP and PDP COVID-19, he added, so as not to burden entrepreneurs from the impact of COVID-19, especially in the hospitality sector.

"By using hotels that are closed, this quarantine can be better monitored than at home, where the facilities are also lacking," he said.