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THE INDONESIAN Hotel and Restaurant Association believes that tourism can start to recover this year, to be precise in the second quarter, although cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant are increasing in the country.
“Although we are currently increasing cases of omicron, there is a difference from last year in terms of regulation,” said General Chairperson of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Hariyadi Sukamdani in a webinar, Wednesday. (2/09)
Last year, various business activities had to be closed when the tightening was implemented, including activities in offices to shopping centers. This year, activities can continue as usual although they are still limited. Hariyadi said that Indonesia could see and learn from other countries which have gradually recovered amid the emergence of the Omicron variant.
“Seeing from other countries such as Britain, Denmark and Turkey, it shows that they are far ready to face the omicron storm, including South Africa,” he said.
He explained, if Indonesia can learn from what these countries have done, he is optimistic that tourism conditions in the country can be better in the second quarter of this year. Tourism recovery in particular, we are optimistic that it will start to run in the second quarter.
“This is because the peak of the omicron wave in Indonesia is expected to occur at the end of February 2022. It is expected that cases will decline in the following months. We hope that April will enter level 1 (PPKM) again,” he remarked.
The PPKM level three policy and the emergence of the omicron variant also affected occupancy in hotels, he continued. In the first quarter of 2022, most likely at the national level between 25-30%. In the second quarter, he expects that figure to rise to 40-45%.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that the increase in COVID-19 cases due to infection with the SARS-CoV-2 variant of the Omicron coronavirus could be higher than the increase in infection cases caused by transmission of the Delta variant virus.
Budi said the increase in cases of Omicron infection in the DKI Jakarta and Bali provinces has now exceeded the increase in COVID-19 cases due to infection with the Delta variant of the corona virus in July 2021.
However, the number of patients who had to undergo treatment in health facilities and died from Omicron infection was far less than during the transmission period of the Delta variant of the corona virus. [antaranews/photo special]
