DENPASAR, Bali, 10 February 2021: Bali’s high flying hotel industry has hit rock bottom with single-digit occupancies and properties are facing imminent closure, Bali Discovery.com reports in its latest weekly edition.
It claims at least 60 hotels are for sales in Bali, with many more teetering on the verge of financial collapse. In an earlier edition, the popular newsletter reported the Supreme Court of Indonesia had formerly declared the Swiss-Belhotel Segara at Nusa Dua in Bali bankrupt and under the control of administrators.
Quoting heavily from TribuneBali.com, the latest report said Bali’s tourism economy is taking an increasingly severe beating resulting from the continuing global pandemic and government policies restricting public movements and gatherings in Java and Bali.
Bali enters the month of February 2021, with hotel occupancies across the island mostly in the single-digit range for those hotels still operating. Bali is home to an estimated 146,000 hotel rooms.
Badung Chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association chairman IGN Rai Suryawijaya noted: “At this time, a hotel with 200 rooms may have 9 or 10 rooms occupied – this is very low. This level of occupancy is not enough to cover the operating costs of the hotel,”
The association is asking the government to provide 10-year soft loans in INR9.7 trillion with low-interest rates, or many businesses will simply collapse and go bankrupt.
Suryawijaya said “around 60 hotels are now available for sale. If tourism is to survive, the central government must quickly help us.
“Several hotel owners have directly said to me that their hotels are for sale, hoping that I know someone among a network of investors who might buy their property,” said Suryawijaya.
For full report see Bali Discovery:
