The tourist island of Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday scrapped quarantine for vaccinated travelers from more than 20 countries and reintroduced visas on arrival for vacationers, in preparation for a reopening of the country after two years of Covid pandemic -19.
This easing of constraints comes as the wave of infections with the Omicron variant decreases in the Southeast Asian archipelago, and after some international airlines have resumed direct flights to Indonesia in recent weeks.
“President Joko Widodo has agreed to try a non-quarantine policy for foreign tourists traveling to Bali from March 7,” Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan announced during of an information meeting.
Relaunch tourism
Travelers will be exempt from isolation if they are doubly vaccinated and present a negative PCR test, and will be required to provide proof of a hotel reservation for four days.
Visas on arrival were suspended two years ago when the pandemic first hit Indonesia, but will once again be available to travelers from 23 countries, including Australia, the United States, UK, Japan or France.
"If this trial is successful, we will remove quarantine for travelers from all countries on April 1, or even earlier," the minister added.
The island's governor, Wayan Koster, said Friday that lifting restrictions is key to reviving the tourism sector, which before the pandemic was Bali's main source of income.
Nearly 6.3 million foreign tourists visited the Hindu-majority island in 2019, but the number plummeted when Indonesia closed its borders to protect itself from the virus.
Contaminations down sharply
“We need to come up with competitive travel rules for foreign tourists as other countries have reopened their tourism sector earlier,” added Wayan Koster.
“Tourism in Bali has been suspended for two years, now is the time to recover it”.
The latest wave of infections, fueled by Omicron, peaked in February at 64,000 daily cases in Indonesia, but the number of infections has since dropped significantly to about 25,000 cases on Sunday.
International flights are back in operation, offering daily services from Singapore and connections to Australia.
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