BALI, 6 Oct: Amidst to the pandemic situation within its mainland, the Indonesian government has decided to partially reopen borders for international travellers coming to Bali.
In a recent press conference, maritime and investment minister Luhut Panjaitan has said, “Ngurah Rai international airport will resume its normal operations due to the expected arrivals of tourist from South Korea, China, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and New Zealand as of October 14. Australia has been left out of exemption despite being one of the main contributors to the island’s tourism.
He later said, “The operations will run normally as long as it complies with the requirements and procedures regarding quarantine, Covid-19 tests and readiness of our task force.”
Under current terms, eligible passengers for entry to Bali include Indonesians as well as foreigners with a work permit or a business visa. Both will be subject to the required eight days of quarantine at a hotel of their own choice. The Indonesian government have yet to release any other restrictions that may apply beyond what was said during the session.
Foreign tourists have yet to return to the island as they were barred from entering since April of last year and all incoming flights to Indonesia landed in the capital, Jakarta and Manado. Since it’s only source of economical income disappeared due to the pandemic, Bali locals were hit hard as non-essential businesses were forced to shut down and movements were restricted in terms of the supply of basic needs.
Sandiaga Uno, head of Indonesia’s tourism ministry, has expressed that the reopening of Ngurah Rangai for international flights would act as a trial run to see it’s effectiveness in resolving the islands economy without overloading it with tourist. His decision was also in correlation of Indonesia’s effort in duplicating Thailand’s “Phuket Sandbox” which allows vaccinated foreign tourists who test negative for Covid-19 to roam freely in the island of Phuket.
A press conference will likely be held earlier next week by the Indonesian tourism committee to announce the procedures that would be needed for incoming tourist to comply with during their stay.
-TheJakartaPost-
