Covid-19 Shifts the Character of Bali Tourism from Dominant Mass Tourism to Dominant Quality Tourism.

Covid-19 Shifts the Character of Bali Tourism from Dominant Mass Tourism to Dominant Quality Tourism.

By I Made Wardana

Preliminary

Bali's tourism industry is part of the Indonesian tourism industry, and is a leading sector in the economic structure of the Province of Bali. The economic structure of the Province of Bali has different characteristics compared to other regions in Indonesia. The economy of the Province of Bali was built through the excellence of the tourism industry sector. The structure of Bali's economy is affected by almost 70% of the tourism service sector.

However, Bali's tourism in 2020 repeatedly experienced shocks due to the Corona Virus or Covid-19 outbreak which resulted in a drastic reduction in tourist visits. This shock is seen in terms of the economy being more devastating from the impact of the shock of the First Bali Bombing (October 2002) and the Second Bali Bombing  (October 2005). The tourism sector and the SMEs sector were the hardest hit sectors.

            Foreign tourist visits during this pandemic fell by almost 100% (Kompas.com  April 25, 2020). In the case of foreign tourists visiting Bali from 2015 to 2018 and 2019, it always increasing. In 2015 foreign tourists to Bali amounted to 3,923,949 and in 2018 foreign tourists to Bali amounted to 6,027,159, for 3 years an average increase of 17.87% per year. In 2019 tourists visiting Bali targeted 6.2 million  tourists and reached more that is 6.7 million tourists (Kompas.com January 3, 2020). But in 2020 since of Covid-19 the outbreak in late 2019, in China, foreign tourist arrivals to Bali have continued to sharp decline.

The Covid-19 outbreak, which is expected to enter Indonesia from February to April 2020, has eroded Indonesia's economic activities including the Bali economy. The tourism sector, which is the mainstay of Bali's economy, collapsed to the lowest point. Very sad hospitality tourism companies, transportation and its kind, who are powerless to run the company must temporarily dismissed most of its employees and some of them laid off. Overall the impact of Covid-19, there were 65,594 workers in Bali  temporarily dismissed and 2,189 laid off (Merdeka.com May 12, 2020).

Furthermore, from March 2020 to June 2020 there is no sign that Covid-19 will end, meanwhile the government has made efforts to cut Covid-19 transmission by limiting the movement of people to activities where in several provinces have been carried out PSBB (Large-scale Social Restrictions) even though Bali did not implement it because the level of transmission cases was considered to be still low compared to other provinces. The PSPB policy and appeals for activities from home until June 2020, apparently cannot significantly reduce Covid-19 transmission.

Seeing this situation, the government began to relax restrictions on the movement of the community, because limiting the movement of the people for too long will cause the economic downturn in the community which tends to lead to new problems, in addition to economic problems as well as social problems which are estimated to have more severe impacts from the impact of Covid-19.

Anticipating these negative impacts, the government designed a policy called the New Normal, which is to reopen certain economic activities to be able to move, but by applying strict health protocols (wearing masks, keeping a distance, and washing hands). The mall has been permitted to begin to be opened including traditional markets. The big question that arises is how the fate of Indonesia's tourism industry, including Bali in the future?

Correspondence Analysis

Uncertainty over the end of the Covid outbreak-19 including the uncertainty of finding a vaccine, has an impact on the uncertainty of the tourism business. The policy of implementing a new normal life order, where humans will live side by side with Covid-19, opens the hope that the tourism industry will run again. The application of the new normal order, reopens the tap of community economic activities and is expected to stimulate the economy both in the production, distribution, consumption and servant sectors, including in the tourism sector. The next question is whether in the application of the new normal life order of tourism in Indonesia and Bali in particular will grow as before?

The prediction of a new normal life order, where people's living habits will tend to turn into something inevitable. Wearing a mask will be a common behavior, no longer an act of hiding the face from the public or the intention to dispel dust when riding a motorcycle. Shaking culture, kissing on the cheek, visiting relatives will be a separate consideration, like never before. Getting married without a party has always been a taboo subject. Customary meetings, religious gatherings, public use of vehicles urged, cerimonial meetings that cause crowds of people will be taboo and break the rules. Dances that involve many people such as Kecak Dance, traditional ceremonies such as the Ngaben ceremony, worship in temples are likely to be modified by the community as a joint responsibility to maintain broad health.

Thus the new normal life order will automatically shift the cultural order, social life and economic order. This situation will have an impact on tourism in Bali. This shift to various challenges not only occurred in Indonesia, Bali but also occurred throughout the world. The culture of life by always wearing a mask when leaving the house, keeping a distance and always cleaning hands is one of the appeals from WHO to be able to coexist with Covid-19.

Coexistence with Covid-19 will have an impact on the economic costs of tourism businesses. A culture of life by always keeping a distance of course must be implemented by companies related to tourism such as transportation companies, hotels, restaurants and other service businesses. Air, sea and land transportation companies will not be able to use their seating capacity fully because they must follow Physical Distancing. Likewise, other service businesses such as restaurants, spas, art shoop, gift shops, including services in tourist attractions visited by tourists. The trend that will occur is the increase in service costs of the businesses mentioned above. The impact is the cost of travel trips will be expensive from the previous situation.

Because of the high cost of traveling during the tour, the demand will decrease. High travel costs automatically market mechanism will select tourists who are able to travel with relatively high costs. Backpacker tourists who are associated as tourists to travel at a low cost, will no longer have a place in the mechanism of the tourism market in a new normal life order. Tourism for the elderly is also likely to be a segment in which demand is declining. The above conditions will be able to shift the character of tourism in Indonesia in general, including Bali tourism, from mass tourism to quality tourism.

Many tourism research results, which discuss about mass tourism  and alternative tourism or quality tourism. The practice of mass tourism began with Thomas Cook, who organized the tour package for the first time on July 5, 1841, so Thomas Cook was called the "Father of Modern Mass Tourism". Mass tourism is tourism with standard packages sold in large scale as opposed to elite and luxury class tourism (Dehoorne et Theng, 2015). Mass tourism is triggered by a strategy to diversify 3 S tourism products (Size, Sustainable, Spread) which are coveted by tourists in general to attract visitors with low budgets and with higher visitor spending (Bramwell, 2004). Mass tourism is characterized by extreme concentrations of tourists in one place, which leads to saturation, and therefore degradation and loss of destination attractiveness.

At the same time, in order to preserve tourism resources so that they can be enjoyed in the long term, the concept of sustainable tourism development was first introduced in the late 1980s. The concept of sustainable tourism development explains the importance of efforts to achieve conservation.

Through a series of studies on a variety of service industries, Parasuraman, et al. (1985) succeeded in identifying five key dimensions of service quality that apply to the tourism service sector as well:

a.   Reliability, related to the company's ability to provide accurate services from the first time without making any mistakes and delivering services in accordance with the agreed time.

b.     Responsiveness, regarding the willingness and ability of employees to help customers and respond to their requests, as well as informing when services will be provided and then providing services quickly.

c.    Assurance, namely the behavior of employees able to foster customer confidence in the company and the company can create a sense of security for its customers. Assurance also mean that employees are always polite and master the knowledge and skills needed to handle any customer questions or problems.

d.     Empathy means that the company understands the problems of its customers and acts in the best interests of the customer, and gives personal attention to customers and has comfortable operating hours.

e.    Physical evidence, regarding the attractiveness of physical facilities, equipment, and materials used by the company, as well as the appearance of employees.

By applying these five dimensions of service quality, you will be able to build a quality tourism experience, encourage positive word of mouth (WOM Positive) behavior of tourists, increase the trust and loyalty of tourists to visit again.

Conclusion.

With the new normal life culture as the impact of Covid-19, it can shift the characteristics of tourism from dominant mass tourism to dominant quality tourism. The new normal life culture shifts the structure of the community's life both cultural, social and economic order. This shift will further impact on the tourism business economy. To build quality tourism, tourism must be able to create a quality tourism experience (Quality Experience Tourism).

Bibliography

Bramwell, B. (2004). Mass Tourism, Diversification and Sustainability in Southern Europe’s Coastal Regions, Aspects of Tourism, Channel View Publications, UK.

Dehoorne O. et S. Theng S. (2015). « Étudier le luxe », Études caribéennes, 30, URL : http://etudescaribeennes.revues.org/7505
DOI : 10.4000/etudescaribeennes.7505

Feri Kristianto, Bisnis.com 27 Februari 2017  |  11:02 WIB

Gilmore A (2017) Quality and Quantity in Tourism. J Hotel Bus Manage 6: 164. doi: 10.4172/2169-0286.100016.

Kompas.com 3 Januari 2020.

Merdeka.com12 Mei 2020.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), "A conceptual model of service quality and its implication", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, Fall, pp. 41-50.