Bali has reduced its quarantine periods for both international and domestic travelers in a bid to recover its deeply-damaged tourism industry.
“It has been decided earlier that the 14-day quarantine will become ten days and the 10-day quarantine will become seven days,” announced the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment and COVID Czar at a press briefing on Monday.
The move means that international travelers will see their 10-day mandatory quarantine reduced to 7 days while Indonesians will see theirs reduced from 14 to 10 days.
It may not appear to be a significant step, but given Indonesia’s stringent entry requirements, it is at least a start.
Note that the 7-day quarantine includes visitors from all countries except those coming from the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Eswatini, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa. Other two countries are yet to be announced.
In any case, international visitors must present proof of having received a full series of a COVID-19 vaccine and a negative PCR test prior to arrival in Indonesia.
This unexpected decision appears to follow a substantial reduction in COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks.
“The number of Covid-19 transmissions has significantly reduced. We also recorded zero deaths from Covid-19 on December 26th, 2021 to January 2nd, 2022,” the COVID Czar said.
Of course, shortening quarantine periods has little to do with the country’s capacity to attract international airlines, which has been its major recovery roadblock since its reopening in October. Officials, on the other hand, have been working on it.
According to Tribun-Bali.com, Sandiaga Uno, Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, has met with Governor Wayan Koster and Deputy Governor Cok Ace to discuss strategies to recover the tourism sector.
Visas, direct flights to Bali, quarantine restrictions, and analyzing the countries chosen to enter Bali, have been the main topics of discussion.
“We will bring these details to a limited meeting at the inter-ministerial and inter-agency level to be reported to the President.”
“The current plan is that at the beginning of the year, after the New Year holiday, we will hold a coordination meeting that specifically discusses these matters,” explained the minister.