Tourism Sector In Labuan Bajo Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic

TOURISM SECTOR IN LABUAN BAJO DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 2020 will be the toughest and most difficult year for Indonesia because the Covid-19 virus emerged in Indonesia. There are many detrimental impacts arising from this situation both within society and the government in Indonesia. One of them is the tourism sector. Throughout 2020, the number of Local and foreign tourists have experienced a drastic decline to 0 due to the ongoing pandemic. As stated by the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) in the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008, the Tourism Industry consists of; Accommodation for visitors, food and beverage service activities, passenger transportation, travel agents and other reservation activities, cultural activities, sports and entertainment activities. UNWTO is the World Tourism Agency under the auspices of the United Nations. According to Tourism Law No. 10 of 2009, the Tourism Industry is a collection of interrelated tourism businesses in order to produce goods and/or services to fulfill tourists' needs in organizing tourism. The tourism sector in Indonesia attracts many foreign and local tourists because of the diversity of tourist destinations spread across all regions in Indonesia. Therefore, the tourism sector is one of the largest foreign exchange contributors to Indonesia and is very profitable. It is important for the Indonesian tourism industry to increase its contribution to domestic products. gross (GDP) because it will trigger more foreign exchange earnings and also provide job opportunities for the Indonesian people and can increase human resources (HR) of higher quality. One of the areas affected by the Covid-19 pandemic is Labuan Bajo. Labuan Bajo is a village located in East Nusa Tenggara. There it has a variety of beautiful and stunning destinations no less than the island of Bali. Starting from marine tourism, cultural tourism, to seeing animals from ancient times. Labuan Bajo has an increasing number of visitors every year, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Labuan Bajo has no visitors throughout 2020. Discussion The spread of the corona virus in several countries has had a major impact on several sectors, from the economy to tourism. In fact, it is reported that the spread of this virus will continue to increase in Indonesia. As a result, many tourists cancel their holiday plans. There are several negative impacts in the tourism sector due to this dangerous virus. These impacts are also experienced in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara. Labuan Bajo is one of the villages in West Manggarai district, East Nusa Tenggara. Labuan Bajo is also a place that is very popular with people who visit to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. Not only is the sea beautiful, the land is no less enchanting. Currently Labuan Bajo is included in the government's 10 priority areas to be developed into an international destination like Bali which is called "10 New Balis" or "10 New Balis". Therefore, there is no need to doubt it. The quality of its beauty and economic benefits are no less competitive with Bali. The impacts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism sector in Labuan Bajo are also many. Labuan Bajo experienced many losses due to the pandemic that occurred, just like Bali. One of them is the hotel in Labuan Bajo. The hotel seems to have been hit by the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which has paralyzed many hotels from booking activities which contribute 60% to hotel revenues. Currently, many hotels have laid off almost 99% of employees without salaries and closed hotel operations completely to cut further losses due to no income and low hotel occupancy rates that are not commensurate with the income received. Not only that, on May 25 2020, there was a viral video circulating on social media showing tourist boats sinking because there were no visitors coming and it was as if the boats had been abandoned. It can be concluded that this is one of the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic. which makes Labuan Bajo empty of visitors and the community cannot carry out normal activities. The community as destination managers in the area suffers losses of up to millions of rupiah due to abandoned tourist destinations and the lack of tourists. The tourist destination in Labuan Bajo said that hotels and restaurants in Labuan Bajo remained open only because there were few visitors coming, so many employees were on leave from work. Existing tourist destinations remained open for the time being, but because there were no tourists, it was as if the destination had been abandoned for a while. about two months now. The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) West Manggarai plans to reopen tourism in East Nusa Tenggara, which has been welcomed positively by a number of parties. PHRI stated that it is ready for the planned opening of tourism starting June 15 2020 and will comply with the health protocols in effect during the corona virus (Covid) pandemic. -19) when it starts operating. Quoted in the Jakarta news, Kompas.com, the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority (BOPLBF) is working on building a digital online registration system for tourists who want to go to Labuan Bajo, both marine and land tourism destinations. This aims to welcome the new normal era that will prioritize the implementation of tourism health protocols for tourists. One of them is an integrated digital tourism system that is integrated in one big data that has been designed from the start by BOPLBF, namely with the initial step of speeding up the running of the online registration system to facilitate access for visitors to tourist destinations, especially existing ones. in Labuan Bajo. This digital tourism system is expected to become the home for tourism in Flores and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) as a whole. The online registration system will be tested on June 9. Online registration will simultaneously regulate visitor schedules and quotas. Apart from that, this system is also intended to simultaneously record the identities of arriving tourists and be able to track their travel history. BOPLBF together with the West Manggarai Regency Tourism and Creative Economy Office will also coordinate in the near future with various hotel associations, restaurants, travel agents and tourism practitioners to welcome the reopening of Labuan Bajo tourism on June 15. Closing For this reason, what can be hoped for now is that the spread of the Covid-19 virus will stop and that the activities of Indonesian society can return to normal. It is also hoped that the tourism sector can run normally again according to the health protocols implemented by WHO and immediately carry out large-scale promotions to bring in tourists to cover all losses caused by this pandemic. It is hoped that the program that will be implemented by Labuan Bajo for tourists will be Labuan Bajo's best step to deal with this pandemic. Entering this new normal era, it is hoped that it will run effectively and can go hand in hand with the clean, healthy and safe program from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as an effort to realize the new normal.