Bali to allow foreign visitors from Feb 4

Indonesia – Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has said that Bali will be reopened for international travelers from February 4, 2022.

“The government is also conveying that we will reopen international borders in Bali on February 4, 2022,” he informed while issuing an online press statement on the evaluation of public activity restrictions (PPKM), accessed from here on Monday.

The minister said that the reopening of Bali for international travelers is aimed at reviving the province’s economy, which has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The reopening of Bali’s international borders is also only for international travelers who are not Indonesian migrant workers, he informed.

Pandjaitan, who is also the deputy chairman of the COVID-19 Handling Committee and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN), affirmed that the reopening will be conducted gradually in stages.

Currently, Bali offers two additional quarantine options to international travelers: they can undergo bubble quarantine at five hotels with a total of 447 rooms, or six live-on-board ships that have received the Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environment Sustainability (CHSE) certification from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, he informed.

Earlier, the Indonesian government had opened Bali’s borders for foreign tourists by opening international flights at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport on October 14, 2021.

However, in early December 2021, the government had restricted entry for Indonesian international travelers arriving either by air, sea, or land. The provision was regulated in the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs (Inmendagri) Number 65 of 2021.

As per the regulation, the entrance to Indonesia via the air route has only been opened at three airports: Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Banten, Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport in Riau Islands, and Sam Ratulangi Airport in North Sulawesi.

Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno has expressed hope for the revitalization of Balinese people’s economy by pushing more sports tourism-based activities to take place in the resort island of Bali.