LAMANRIAU.COM, PEKANBARU – The spread of the Corona virus has made the number of hotel guests in Pekanbarut Drop dramatically. As a result, there were six hotels that were temporarily closed due to reduced income.
“We received a report from PHRI (Association of Indonesian Restaurant Hotels) Riau, there are six hotels and one restaurant and convention center closed in Pekanbaru. This is the impact of the current outbreak of COVID-19,” said Riau Tourism Office Head Yoserizal Zein, Thursday (4/9/2020).
Yoserizal predicts the number of closed hotels will increase. He said the decline in the number of hotel guests was due to activity restrictions to prevent the spread of the corona virus.
“This is what we received from the PHRI organization. This condition is inevitable since the lack of hotel occupancy during the COVID-19 emergency response status,” Yoserizal said.
Chairman of the Riau PHRI Nofrizal said hotel room occupancy in Riau is currently under 10 percent. He said hotel managers had difficulty paying operational costs.
“Hotel occupancy is currently very low, below 10 percent. This condition is not possible to cope with operational costs and paying employees is no longer possible,” Nofrizal said.
He said the closure was temporary. The closed hotel has the status of non-star to three-star.
“Visitors are really lonely during this pandemic. We expect government policies to provide tax relief,” Nofrizal said.
The temporary closure of the hotels affected 300 laid-off employees. He claimed that he could not predict how long the closure would take place.
“All members of PHRI have implemented protocol established by the government. However, the current occupancy rate is very low,” concluded Nofrizal. (dtc)
