Officials with the Bali Tourism Agency are pleased that domestic tourism within Indonesia to their region has improved significantly as of late, partially thanks to a reduction in the price of COVID-19 tests that many travelers need to take to be allowed entry to this province. However, they also have their eyes set on a future reopening of Bali to the international tourism market to further help their local economy recover.
Those hopes have been reignited by news that the government is in the process of making plans to reopen that international travel corridor, according to Bali Tourism Agency officials.
What has prompted this development has been how successful the domestic reopening of tourism to Bali has gone. In the days immediately following the reduction in price of rapid antigen tests to $7, 6,000 travelers started arriving at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport on a daily basis, primarily from Jakarta and Surabaya. Prior to that point, the corresponding number had been 2,500 passengers per day.
The requirements that are in place for domestic tourists will likely be the same for international visitors once this international travel corridor does open, so the transition is expected to be relatively seamless.
I Putu Astawa, the Bali Tourism Agency’s head, has stressed how important it is that those regulations do remain in place for international tourists, saying, “We need to assure that they will not carry the virus when they arrive or depart from Bali by implementing the proper screening that we have been doing for the domestic tourists.”
Regardless, likely requirements that have already been met include the vaccination of all workers in the tourism industry and ensuring that businesses there that are involved in the accommodation of tourists have followed the Clean Health Safety and Environment’s COVID-19 prevention protocols.
Across Indonesia, the COVID-19 infection rate has been dropping significantly. Most notably, its daily positivity rate is now below 5%, its lowest since March 2020. As a result, the World Health Organization deems the COVID-19 situation in Indonesia to no longer be “out of control.” That figure had been 33% just two months ago.xt