The Tourism Association has confirmed that over 90 percent of restaurants in Ubud has closed down due to Covid-19 pandemic. The Head of Gianyar Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), Pande Mahayana Adityawarman said that majority of those accommodation businesses had to make the tough decision because they could not cover their operational cost. “Ubud used to be the top tourist destination on the island not now has suddenly become a ghost town, and it brings a major impact to the economic situation since then” said Aditawarman on Tuesday (16/3).
Some of the businesses tried to reopen during the Christmas holidays, but they didn’t receive significant response from the domestic tourists. Additionally, the pandemic has also affected the hotels occupancy in Ubud. Adityawarman said that the occupancy has dropped since the partial lockdown was implemented in most of the areas in Bali and Java.
“We still had a few occupants before the partial lockdown was implemented, but now many hotels in Ubud also decided to close operations due to lack of tourism” Adityawarman added. The majority of accommodation businesses decided to lay-off their staff as they were unable to pay salaries. He also explained that the occupancy during the weekends was still not enough to cover their electricity bills.
“PHRI tried to offer packages to attract domestic tourists to stay in Ubud, but we didn’t receive a significant response from them especially since the partial lockdown. We have urged the government to help us to provide a soft loan in order to avoid permanent economic damage from the situation” Adityawarman concluded.
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Paul Morris
Sunday 21st of March 2021
90% of the restaurants in Bali have closed their doors not just Ubud that are suffering from this pandemic. Still the government is oblivious to the plight of its own people, instead of forever talking up the opening of Bali ( which is not going to happen until the virus is eliminated and the only way to do that is to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. In the meantime why don’t you help your people by providing food and basic needs that families need now it’s already been 12 months with very little support from YOU.
Wayan Bo
Sunday 21st of March 2021
In many European city's is closing rate between 99.9% and 100%.
Ben
Monday 22nd of March 2021
@Wayan Bo, Sadly yes, but that's only the case because government forbids them from receiving cutomers (here in NL), or imposes restrictions that make in impossible to operate.
If they were allowed to operate they'd have plenty of customers. So would the ones on Bali if the border wasn't closed.