Unexpectedly Increased Fuel Prices, Tourist Visits In Stable Bromo

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

MALANG - The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Center (BB TNBTS) stated that the number of tourist visits in the Bromo area in East Java has not been affected by the policy of increasing the price of fuel oil (BBM).

Head of the Data, Evaluation and Public Relations Sub-Division of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Center (BB TNBTS) Sarif Hidayat in Malang City, Monday, said that until now there has been no significant decrease in tourist visits due to the policy.

"There is no significant decrease for tourist visits to Bromo. Maybe, because in terms of entrance tickets, there has been no change in price," said Sarif to ANTARA.

Sarif explained that tourist visits to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park area on weekends still look full according to the set quota. Currently, the Bromo area has set a maximum quota for tourist visits of 75 percent of the capacity to suppress the spread of COVID-19.

According to him, the number of tourist visits in normal days after the increase in fuel prices is also still normal. For normal days, tourist visits range from more than 70 percent of the set quota.

"For weekends, tourist visits are full according to quotas. But for normal days, it's a bit sloping but it's almost full or around 70 percent of the quota," he said.

The determination of the quota for tourist visits is 2,202 people, divided into Bukit Cinta with a capacity of 93 people, Bukit Kedaluh 321 people per day, Penanjakan, 666 people per day, Mentigen 165 people per day, and Savana Teletubbies as many as 957 people per day.

However, he admitted, the impact of the increase in fuel prices made the fare for jeep transportation services increase.

"Service providers have finally made tariff adjustments. But for tourist visits, it is still stable," he said.

He estimates that the data on tourist visits will be analyzed again in the next month to determine whether there is an impact on the fuel adjustment policy.

"Perhaps, for now, tourists who have been booking long days will continue to travel. We will see later. Maybe in about a month there will be changes or not related to visits," he said.

Based on data from the TNBTS Center, on the day the government raised the price of fuel on September 3, 2022, tourist visits in Bromo reached 2,149 Indonesian tourists and 53 foreign tourists.

Meanwhile, one week later, the number of tourists reached 2,177 Nusantara tourists and 25 foreign tourists.

In the period 1-11 September 2022, the number of tourist visits to Bromo reached 18,488 visits consisting of 17,640 domestic tourists and the rest from abroad.

"In the near future, there has been no significant change. We will see the trend of tourist visits in the future," he said.