TEMPO.CO, Denpasar - Bali potentially suffers losses of up to Rp140 billion per month due to the impact of the coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreak. Bali's Head of Tourism Agency Putu Astawa, said that the number was obtained from the average monthly visits of Chinese tourists.

"The number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali is about 100,000 people in a month with daily spending of around Rp1.4 million. So the estimated losses reach Rp140 billion per month," said Astawa on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.

The likeliness of the potential downturn was subject to increase since the government suspended flights from and to China temporarily a few days ago. In addition, the average hotel occupancy rate during the low season declined by 10 to 15 percent, which normally reached 65 percent, Astawa added.

He reiterated that the number of Chinese tourists who canceled their trip remained stagnant at around 20,000 to 25,000 people, which was also attributable to the flight suspension.

However, Astawa asserted that the central government had imposed the right policies to help the recovery of the tourism and economic sector amid the crisis caused by the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the governor planned to hold a coordination meeting with all officials of the province to formulate programs to be implemented in the short and medium-term in a bid to accelerate the tourism recovery.

As earlier reported, China contributed the second largest number of foreign tourist visits in Bali at 18.2 percent.

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