The Bali provincial government plans to limit the amount of international visitors during the upcoming holiday season but has yet to see any significant amount of international tourists.
The Head of Bali Tourism Agency, Tjok Bagus Pemayun confirmed that the provincial government plans to limit the amount of international visitors as a prevention to avoid a third wave of Covid-19 transmission in Bali.
“We will only allow a total of 1,500 international visitors during the year-end holiday in December to prevent Covid-19 transmission in Bali.” Pemayun said on Tuesday (16/11).
Additionally, authorities will implement restrictions to 94 tourist attractions in 9 different regions across the island as an effort to reduce the risk of transmission . “We will implement restrictions as well as assuring the prevention protocols implementation by regularly inspect the Clean Health Safety Environment (CHSE) certification and PeduliLindungi tracing app utilization in those businesses.” Pemayun added.
Pemayun has also proposed that the central government revise their travel requirements for international travelers as well as reopening the border for visitors from additional countries
“We have urged the central government to reduce quarantine time to only 1 day and reopen our border for another 5 countries such as our main tourist markets of the United States, Australia, Russia, England and Germany to help Bali revive the tourism sector.” Pemayun concluded.
The Bali Sun has interviewed dozens of potential visitors and has confirmed that reducing the quarantine to one day may not make a difference. Jeremy Stanzick who is currently living in New Zealand says that he will still not visit due to the visa regulations.
“The Visa on Arrival program is suspended so it doesn’t matter what they do in terms of entry requirements,” Stanzick said. “The Bali visa process is still very difficult so I chose Thailand for Christmas.”
The Bali Sun investigated the current entry requirements which are far stricter than any other country open for tourism. Here are the hurdles a tourists needs to jump through
Be from one of the 16 countries which include:
Bahrain
China
France
Hungary
India
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Liechtenstein
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
United Arab Emirates
2. Find one of the extremely limited (if any) flights that are flying into Bali currently.
3. Valid VISA: B211A for tourism which includes providing evidence of at least US$2000 in a bank account. Additionally tourists will need to provide confirmation and a payment receipt from the accommodation where they are staying for the duration of trip including payment for a quarantine hotel. Tourists will also need proof of a return flight home booked.
Some visa agents may provide the service online for between $500-$1000 USD. Doing it on your own through an Indonesian embassy will cost around $55.00. If they are accepting appointments in your home country or not will be a different story.
4. Negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure
5. Quarantine in a government approved hotel
Partially Vaccinated 5 days
Fully Vaccinated 3 days
6. Downloaded Peduli Lindungi App which includes eHAC
7. Proof of full vaccination (physical or digital) in English
8. Health insurance/travel insurance coverage up to US$100,000
The travelers we spoke with told The Bali Sun they will not return to Bali until the visa on arrival program is resumed.
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Erik
Thursday 25th of November 2021
Before the pandemic I was living and doing business in Bali whilst maintaining an offshore job.
Whilst other parts of the world with relatively more COVID-19 cases and lower vaccination rates are accessible for business and tourism, Indonesia is all about being careful and literally bankrupting people in Bali. I keep people literally fed as much as I can afford. These are fairly well of people who have now lost pretty much everything including everyday food. The problem is unreliability regarding policies, overzealous process on arrival etc. It's not Covid-19 that is directly threatening Bali, it's the government prudence and policies that actually endanger the health of people in Bali.
I can fly from Tanzania (1.5% orso vaccinated and my now temporary base in between projects) to Europe without testing (vaccinated), but I can't go home to Bali able to rely on a stable sensible Covid-19 policy.
To stay now in Bali for business one has to extend the visa every month meaning the passport will be at immigration for around 10 working days every month. Having to be able to leave on short notice this is not feasible. At the same time long-term holidayers have been coming on fake business visas pretty much throughout the whole pandemic.
And where are (long overdue) initiatives to diversify the economy? The volcanic eruptions and earthquakes amongst others have proven that to rely on tourism as much as Bali does is too volatile. There is an international airport, experienced population, university and people and buildings looking for an alternative destination. Cease this opportunity!
But no, the government is just looking at the WHO and statistics and not at the bigger more long-term picture.
Darwinista
Saturday 20th of November 2021
So there is an assumption that tourist bring corona. So because of that you will reduce the foreign tourist arrival from 0 to 1500. You know logic?
Patrick
Saturday 20th of November 2021
What's the difference between closing and letting in 1500 persons?????
Freddie Roland
Friday 19th of November 2021
Much as i love Bali
Doug
Friday 19th of November 2021
Oh yeah. Forgot. Along with the other onerous conditions for entry to Bali is the providing proof of financial holdings. For a Tourist Visa. That information is privy exclusively to the financial institutions I deal with. Not going to happen. Resident Visa, yes necessary. Tourist visas huh??? Obviously there exists an imminent threat of the impecunious and unwashed disembarking at DPS Airport... mmm? Perhaps this strategy was formulated by Homer Simpson. Doooh!!
Doug
Saturday 20th of November 2021
@Ben, Thanks Ben, aware of the requirement to have an ongoing outbound ticket but in more than thirty years of travel to Indonesia I've never been asked to provide financials. So I wasn't aware of that requirement. Interesting though. Cheers for the info.
Ben
Saturday 20th of November 2021
@Doug, formally there was a requirement to have us$ 2500 to enter the country, as well as a ticket out before your visa expired.
These things were never checked at the border, and for the $2500 a credit card with that limit or more would also suffice.
Several countries have similar requirement, but rarely check any of them for western visitors.