Offbeat tours in Jakarta – of a village of Portuguese slave descendants, cemeteries, mosques – move online

With travel shut down, a tourism entrepreneur and her tour guides in Indonesia had no income for two months, so she decided to make her agency’s tours virtual

For as little as US$1.70 they take participants to an urban village rich in Portuguese tradition, beautiful graveyards, Jakarta’s Little India, and city mosques

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Milton Augustino Michiels and his niece Citra Augusta Margriette (front) play kroncong music at home in Kampung Tugu, Jakarta. A tour company that usually runs guided tours of the urban village has launched a virtual tour of it, and other places of interest in the Indonesian capital, amid the coronavirus pandemic that has halted international travel. Photo: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images

Published: 5:30pm, 19 May 2020Updated: 5:51pm, 19 May 2020

A village rich in Portuguese tradition, beautiful Dutch graveyards, and Little India are among tourist attractions in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, visitors like to explore on foot. That’s not possible amid the coronavirus pandemic, so an enterprising tour company has created virtual tours of them instead.

This month Wisata Kreatif Jakarta (also known as Jakarta Food Traveller) launched 60 themed virtual tours of these lesser known destinations in Jakarta, and of nearby cities, using the conferencing app Zoom. The 90-minute tours cost as little as 25,000 rupiah (US$1.70) to join.

Founded by entrepreneur and author Ira Lathief in February 2017, Wisata Kreatif Jakarta works with 15 licensed tour guides. But they have not been able to lead physical tours since early March, and thus have received no commission from Lathief’s company. Lathief herself had no income for two months.

She and her team launched the virtual tours on May 1, enabling people from anywhere in the world to join in as long as they have internet access.

A screenshot from a virtual tour offered by Jakarta-based tour company Wisata Kreatif Jakarta.

“It is like a glimmer of hope,” the 39-year-old says. “We continue to do activities during this difficult time.”