Bromo Fire; Hotel Occupancy Drops to 25%

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) of Probolinggo Regency said that the hotel occupancy rate in the Bromo area has dropped to just 25 percent after access to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) area is closed off. Of the 38 hotels with a total of 490 vacancies, only around 120 rooms are occupied.

"Practically, each hotel now only has an average of three occupied rooms," PHRI chairman Digdoyo Djamaluddi told TEMPO on Tuesday, September 12.

Yoyo said the hotels are suffering huge losses due to the fire that burned the savanna area in the Bromo sand sea. Not only did they lose guests, but the water pipelines were damaged due to the fire, meaning they had to buy water to meet the hotel's needs.

"The pipes that were damaged due to the fire are about 4 kilometers long," added Yoyo.

This means that the damage caused by the Bromo savanna fire has doubled. Yoyo said most of the tourist attractions in the Bromo area had been closed since Sunday, September 10. As for now, only Seruni Point can be visited.

Yoyo had actually protested against using the term 'total closure' of Bromo tourist access. "I have expressed my objection to the TNBTS authorities. Restriction would be the correct term actually," he said. 

DAVID PRIYASIDHARTA

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