According to a top official, a current trial in Bali allowing international visitors to enter without quarantine bodes well for Indonesia's broader reopening.
"We see the Covid situation improving," said Luhut Panjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment in charge of Java and Bali's pandemic response. Foreign tourists in Bali now simply need to wait for a negative test result on arrival before being freed, he noted, and Indonesia is on course to eliminate all quarantine requirements in April or earlier.
In a joint interview with Panjaitan on Wednesday, Septian Hario Seto, a deputy at the coordinating ministry, said the government plans to increase its list of 23 nations eligible for visas on arrival.
To reinvigorate its tourism economy, Indonesia has taken steps to relax virus restrictions and reopen international borders, with a target of 3.6 million visitors this year. While Bali's reopening was gradual at first, the beach resort has begun to welcome more foreign tourists after a jet from Tokyo landed in early February, the first direct international flight to land in the island since it closed its borders in March 2020.
Bali was Indonesia's most popular tourist destination prior to COVID-19. The epidemic has had a significant impact on the island's economy, which contracted 9.3 percent in 2020 and 2.47 percent the previous year.
Sign In