Indonesia applies hotel charge discounts for tourists affected by earthquake in Lombok

JAKARTA - Provincial tourism stakeholders implemented service procedures, including hotel charge discounts, for foreign tourists affected by earthquake in Lombok island, Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said Tuesday.

Among the procedures applied for the affected foreign tourists was to waive the hotel charges for the next day after Sunday's strong earthquake, which hit the popular destination island located in West Nusa Tenggara province, said the minister.

In the following days, the hotels will provide discounts of up to 50 percent, which would be gradually restored to normal price after the situation is considered back to normal.

The practice to apply such a procedure, which was initiated in Bali in response to the volcano eruption event, resulted from a meeting of provincial hotels and restaurants owners representatives, travel agents, tourism marketing and convention center association officials shortly after the earthquake jolted the island.

The tourism minister also praised the rapid response demonstrated by tourism stakeholders in Lombok, especially services of provincial tourism associations in facilitating the bereaved families of the Malaysian tourist killed in the event.

The 6.4-magnitude earthquake in Lombok, which was adjacent to Bali, has killed 17 people, including the Malaysian female tourist and a domestic tourist, Indonesia's national Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.

BNPB Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Tuesday the operation to evacuate tourists from Lombok's Mount Rinjani has concluded. The operation has rescued a total of 1,091 tourists, among which 723 are foreigners.

Foreign tourists saved by Indonesian joint rescue team came from Thailand, France, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Britain, China, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Germany and several Middle East countries.

Indonesia deployed two helicopters and 224 personnel, including 100 troops from the army's elite unit of Kopassus, in the operation to evacuate the tourists from Mount Rinjani, he added.