Before the pandemic, Ilhani cooked Japanese dishes every day for tourists from all over the world. He now earns barely three dollars a day from donuts that he sells by bicycle in the deserted streets of the Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced almost all hotels and restaurants on the Gili Islands, popular for their white sand beaches and turquoise seas, home to turtles and other marine life, to close.
Gili Trawangan, a neighboring island of Bali, was growing rapidly thanks to tourism with some 1,500 foreign visitors every day.
But after the restrictions imposed by the authorities from March 2020, then the closure of the borders to international tourists, Ilhani’s restaurant did not survive.
Almost two years later, he says he’s struggling to feed his wife and four children.
“Life is very difficult now. I sell donuts because it’s something that locals can afford to buy, ”he told AFP.
“Before, there were tourists to buy everything we sold, but now you see, the island is deserted”.
PHOTO BAY ISMOYO, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
The coronavirus pandemic has forced almost all hotels and restaurants in the Gili Islands to close.
The economy of the three small Gili Islands – Trawangan, Meno and Air – was very dependent on tourism. Out of some 800 hotels with around 7,000 rooms, only around 20 are still open, according to Lalu Kusnawan, president of the Gili Hotel Association which operates a tourist resort in Trawangan.
The shops, bars and cafes remain empty, some are for sale and others abandoned. Dust and cobwebs collect on tables and chairs that have not been used for a long time.
Staff who were employed in tourism had to find other means of making a living. Some fish to feed their families.
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause the global tourism sector to lose $ 2 trillion this year, as much as in 2020, warned the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) last week, estimating that the recovery will be “fragile” and ” slow “.
International tourist arrivals should thus remain this year “by 70 to 75% lower” than those of the pre-pandemic which stood at 1.5 billion in 2019.
Extended quarantine
PHOTO BAY ISMOYO, AFP
After the restrictions imposed by the authorities from March 2020, then the closure of the borders to international tourists, the Ilhani restaurant did not survive. “Life is very difficult now. I sell donuts because it’s something the locals can afford to buy, ”he explains.
Ilhani fears he may have to suffer again as Indonesian authorities have just imposed new restrictions to prevent a new pandemic wave.
In the port of Gili Trawangan, most of the boats, used to take tourists from one island to another or to go diving, have been at anchor for months. A little further on, a pontoon is rotting.
The borders were officially reopened to tourists from a few countries in October. But no direct international link to Bali has resumed, and tourists face quarantine and strict visa rules, limiting demand.
Fearing the impact of the new Omicron variant, Indonesia has extended the mandatory quarantine period in a hotel on entry to the country to 10 days, dampening hopes of a resumption of tourism.
PHOTO BAY ISMOYO, AFP
Abdian Saputra, who has a shuttle boat service between Bali and the Gili Islands, says he had to sell his property and lay off half of his employees to continue his business.
Lalu Kusnawan thinks he can’t last much longer.
“We are bleeding, but we have no more blood to shed […] We were already in bad shape before Omicron, ”he laments.
Abdian Saputra, who has a shuttle boat service between Bali and the Gili Islands, says he had to sell his property and lay off half of his employees to continue his business.
“I rarely see new passengers since the pandemic. If we stop, other businesses like hotels will die. We help each other to survive ”.
“But if it continues, my affair can only last until January or next February.”
Foreign travelers who came to Indonesia before the borders closed, or those who live in the country, enjoy the island paradise on their own.
“I will never see the island like this again, but if I had to choose I would prefer the tourists to be back. […] because the locals have been suffering for too long, ”observes Nicolas Lindback, originally from Norway.