Reporting To The DPR, PHRI Call The COVID-19 Pandemic Makes Hotels And Restaurants Losing IDR 70 Trillion

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Hariyadi Sukamdani revealed that hotels and restaurants have suffered losses of IDR 70 trillion due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This loss is calculated from the period January to April.

Hariyadi said that there were more than 2,000 hotels that had closed their operations. However, after the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) were relaxed, hotels began to open in mid-June.

"Hopefully we can gradually start opening again and for restaurants there are 8,000 closed and the losses are Rp. 30 trillion for the hotel sector and Rp. 40 trillion for restaurants as of last April," he said, at the General Hearing Meeting (RDPU) with the working committee (panja). Tourism Recovery Commission X DPR, Tuesday, July 14.

According to Hariyadi, the COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in many employees being dismissed or left unpaid because they are still waiting for the development of increased demand.

The current condition is that the occupancy rate of hotel rooms in Jakarta is only 15 percent, Batam 3 percent, Bali 1 percent, Surabaya 10 percent, Makassar 6 percent, Yogyakarta 10 percent, Semarang 15 percent and Medan 10 percent.

"The worst thing is Bali, PHRI Bali even before this report was made (for the DPR) told it to call it 0 percent occupancy," he explained.

According to Haryadi, the condition of the resorts and hotels was helped a little because on weekends the occupancy rate was slightly better. The current condition is so difficult for PHRI, all hotels that are currently still experiencing financial losses, the working capital reserves owned by hotel entrepreneurs have been used up to survive the pandemic.

"This is also the process of debt restructuring in banks, which is still ongoing for banks with limited liquidity, the restructuring process and relatively high fees," he said.

High Operating Costs

Not only that, Hariyadi said, other operational costs such as electricity and gas payments were also considered too burdensome, because they were overpaid. This is related to the minimum charge provisions. In fact, he said, businessmen did not consume much electricity and gas during the pandemic.

Although many restaurants have opened because the mall is back in operation, visitors have not returned to normal numbers. Not only that, Hariyadi revealed, restaurant owners are also burdened with high operational costs due to many malls that find it difficult to provide discounts on room rent according to the ability of the tenants.

"Our members have difficulty because paying rent is not alleviated. Not to mention the number of restaurant visitors is still small. Also, some imported raw materials such as sugar, garlic, milk are starting to experience shortages," he said.