As of Thursday, flights from 19 countries, including China, South Korea, France, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates, were allowed to travel to Bali, famous for its rice terraces. emerald, its Hindu temples and its white sand beaches.

by Dames Alexander Sinaga

JAKARTA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) – Balinese tourism entrepreneur I Ketut Ardana is all excited about the reopening of tourism to the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, which had been closed especially to international tourists for about more than a year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Thursday, flights from 19 countries, including China, South Korea, France, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates, were allowed to travel to Bali, famous for its rice terraces. emerald, its Hindu temples and its white sand beaches.

Indonesia has reopened tourism to “Island of the Gods” as 99% of Balinese have received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines and more than 80% have been fully vaccinated.

The Southeast Asian archipelago country has relaxed its four-tier COVID-19 restrictions on public activities, known locally as PPKM, following a drop in the number of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations.

“We are delighted and happy that Bali is reopening,” Ardana, who also heads the Association of Indonesian Travel and Travel Agencies (ASITA) in Bali, told Xinhua on Friday.

“But we are aware that once reopened, tourists will not come right away,” he added.

Until the second day of the reopening, no international flights from these countries arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, according to the Bali provincial administration.

In an interview with Xinhua on Friday, Bali Tourism Agency Director I Putu Astawa explained that requirements for international visitors allowed to travel to Bali, such as visas, had just been implemented. square.

“This is why no international flights have landed at Ngurah Rai so far,” said Astawa, expecting international tourists to start visiting the resort island in November.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is likely to be sweeter.

“It looks like we still really need to wait,” Ardana said, adding that it was still not clear which airlines would be carrying tourists from these licensed countries to Bali.

The Indonesian government has demanded that international visitors wishing to visit Bali be fully vaccinated and quarantined in hotels for five days at their own expense and meet strict visa requirements under the new entry rules.

According to Ardana, tourists from European countries would not view the mandatory quarantine requirement as an issue since their length of stay in Bali typically reaches up to three weeks.

Instead, this requirement could be a problem for tourists from Asian countries, such as China, South Korea, and Japan. “Their average length of stay is five days,” he explained.

Earlier, Indonesia’s Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordination Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that the reopening of tourism in the provinces of Bali and the Riau Islands would be periodically evaluated.

All eyes will be on Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, as in 2022 Bali will host the G20 summit. Last week, President Joko Widodo visited the venue for the summit.

Indonesia, home to some 270 million people, is fighting to vaccinate 208.26 million people against COVID-19.

To date, at least 105.46 million people in the country have taken their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines, 61.39 million have been fully vaccinated and some 1.05 million Indonesians have received the third dose, according to figures from the country’s health ministry.

Pandjaitan expressed his hope that reopening tourism will boost Bali’s economy, which mainly depends on the tourism industry.

Ardana also hopes the government will persistently discuss reopening tourism with other stakeholders. “Tourism cannot be done by one person or one party,” he said.

“There still needs to be communications so that we can decide how best to recover from the tourism industry from before,” Ardana added.