Heaptalk, Jakarta — Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, announced a number of crucial points in order to recover Indonesia’s economy in the Weekly Press Briefing on November 1st, 2021. A number of the essential points consist of the evolution of multi-tiered public activity restriction (PPKM) and its impact on tourism and the creative economy, as well as re-opening tourist destinations in Bali.
The Covid-19 situation has been under-control sufficiently in Indonesia. Considering the recent conducive situation and the urge of the tourism as one of the heart sectors for economic recovery, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy decided to re-open tourist destinations in Bali. Nevertheless, as stated by Uno, since its re-opening on October 14th, 2021, the international flight to the Gods island remains zero.
After performing the extensive review, in its practical, the condition was promoted by serious obstacles which troubles the foreign tourists. The rigid and complicated regulation applied for tourists abroad and the limited airline’s options become the main issues that coined the situation.
The tourists are required to collect a handful of documents, and in case, the submission process also takes plenty of time. Additionally, the foreign tourists yet, are waiting for flight schedules from various airlines due to only a number of airlines that have been re-opened for flights to Bali.
“We keep recording there are still no international flights to Bali directly, and we keep aligning with the mandatory preparations. We expect that 19 countries that have been given approval, we are able to obtain better feedback, and we have been also proposed countries with low positivity rates,” said Uno in his statement during the briefing.
To cope with the problem, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has initiated an exceptional program that provides new excitement in the quarantine process, namely Live On Board (LOB). The innovation is created to twist people’s mindset towards the boredom of the quarantine process by altering the process into a “fancy holiday”. The measure is expected to attract the visitors’ attention which afterward will recover Indonesia’s tourism industry.
Performing this ‘exclusive’ quarantine, the Bali’s foreign tourists are able to enjoy LOB quarantine, conducting seas explore by cruise, sailing around Bali for 5 days. Moreover, The quarantine period of overseas tourists who have carried out the vaccines completely and PCR tests at the beginning of arrival and departure will be reduced from 5 days to 3 days.
“Presently, there are 38 ships that have registered to be quarantined. But we are still curating ships that can be quarantined,” said Rizki Handayani, Deputy for Tourism Products and Activities Organizers of the Creative Economy Agency.
During the quarantine duration, the foreign tourists are not permitted to leave behind the ship even though the ship has anchored at the port a day before the quarantine period has been completed. They are required to be checked for their health by doing a PCR test which produces a negative outcome in order to quit the ship and be vacationed in Bali.
