Heaptalk.com, Jakarta –The tourism industry today is entering a new phase, where many aspects have changed compared to previous years. If in the past years we still find the crowd on the most favorable tourism spots, a lot of events that involving many people, and full occupancy of the airlines, transportation, hotel, and restaurant, while still ignorant to maintaining health. On the contrary, the years after, we will face a different situation where traveling is appealed to be more aware of personal hygiene and health in doing the activities.
Hotel industry, for example, they eventually practice an obligatory habit of washing hands, wearing masks, and face shields as a standard operational procedure that their employees must adhere to. Likewise, the transportation industry, due to the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic the occupancy of transportation modes such as airlines, trains, buses and ships must be set to only 50%, and apply social distance in queuing, plus, in some cases, they require passengers to accompany their journey with a health certificate.
Also, keep in view, the tour organizer and local tourism industry are also obliging tourists to practice health protocol i.e. maintain social distancing, use personal protection such as masks and face shields, and make rules for tourists if the body temperature reaches 37 degrees, the management has the right to prohibit entering the areas or participating in a tour event.
As a result, this situation has had a significant impact on the travel industry players. Analysts noted that the average monthly income generated reached a condition of minus 3 times. It is so harsh, in Indonesia itself this situation forces some industry to close their operations, while some others are still holding out, leaving only 15% of the total industry to survive.
Besides, it also forced the industry to survive in the middle of this uncertainty while making several innovations and pivots. As we know this is the last choice of industry players to keep the business alive, even some of them finally decided to shut off or hold.
Airy rooms, for example, were listed as a company that was severely affected by this pandemic and decided to close its services as of 1st June 2020. Meanwhile, OYO has laid off some of its employees and closed several of its branches.
The tourism manager is experiencing the same situation, that they close for a certain period of tourist destinations and also there are no events during that period. For example, the Dieng Culture Festival and Mount Bromo Jazz, two of the influential events in Indonesia that were no longer held during the pandemic. Whereas before, The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has high expectations regarding this creative industry to be able to contribute foreign exchange of 20 billion in the next 5 years.
In Indonesia, the tourism and creative industry have had a very critical effect. The main factor is that many people limit themselves to going outside. Recorded from January to June, Chairman of the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo), Hariyadi Sukamdani explained that 2,000 hotels were closed and this caused USD 40 trillion in lost revenue.
Hariyadi also said the industry has recorded the greatest loss in history, reaching 32 trillion as of August 2020. It is suspected that the impact of the great effects during May 2020, where hotel occupancy fell by 14.45 percent, while domestic flights fell by 98.34 percent and international flights fell by 99.18 percent.
Pivot and Innovation is the real Solution
The Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMII) suggests that an appropriate step in dealing with this pandemic is to do a business pivot, as a step for the industry, both micro and macro, to survive during an economy affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
As shown by Klook, this Hong Kong-based travel startup is changing its business model, which was a tour package provider, now launching a new service called Klook Home. This service provides a variety of services to be accessed from home, including personal fitness consultations, online skills courses, and ordering services for body care and hairdressers.
Besides, another example of a pivot or what is more accurately described as a business innovation is the steps taken by several tourism actors by introducing a new pattern of travel, namely by holding a virtual tour. This activity itself is more about inviting participants to enjoy the natural beauty and local wisdom of Indonesia, without having to be present at that location.
For example, Telusuri, a travel lover community in Indonesia had several times held a virtual tour invitation with a large number of events running successfully. The virtual tour itself selects attractive tourism locations and then deliver the experience into a video conference platforms such as Zoom, and Google Meet so that the participant can feel as if he is being taken to the destination. An example of a successful virtual tour is the Virtual Tour to Kapoposang Island.
