The Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Tourism Economy in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Tourism industry in the region of South East Asia has been subjected to several crises which raise questions about their ability to manage crises and readiness for future eventualities. The importance of such abilities is heightened especially in the current landscape where the rapidity and scale of the Covid-19’s pandemic threaten to derail the global economy. Considering the integral role of the tourism sector in the South Sulawesi of Indonesia, this research aims to explore and understand the actual and perceived impacts of Covid-19 in relations to the actions undertaken by the business managers and owners to sustain their operations. To achieve this, an embedded design approach based on the results of feedback related to the impact of Covid-19 on the wide-spectrum of tourism businesses was employed. Descriptive analysis is used to provide a perspective view of Covid-19 impacts and this is supported by the results of interview analysis. The results showed that most tourism businesses across the 24 main destinations in South Sulawesi are economically affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The involvement of several tourism businesses in handling the Covid-19 is initially an apparent misfortune that eventually has good results, in which tourism businesses opted to lay off their employees and leverage digital tools to survive the ongoing crisis.