Bali’s Sanur Fast Boat Pier Finally Ready For Tourists

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The new and much anticipated Sanur Pier is ready for its grand reveal. The official opening of the new pier has been announced for the 9th of November. Preparations for the event have been underway all week as the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, will do the honors. 

The Sanur Fast Boat Association has told reporters that the group is happy and excited that the new pier is ready for operation. The chairman of the Sanur Fastboat Association, Made Ariana, said, ‘Yes, we from the association are very happy, because the new Sanur jetty will soon be opened’. Ariana is also a fast boat operator and has said that he is happy that tourists will no longer have to wade through the shallow waters of Sunrise Beach to jump aboard the fast boats.

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The fast boat services from Sanur run to Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan Lombok, and the Gili Islands. It is the departure point of choice for hundreds of thousands of tourists annually. The new Sanur Pair has been in the making, and the local economy’s future is boosted through the new infrastructure. It is now more accessible for travelers to safely board fast boats to Bali and Lombok Province’s leading tourist islands. 

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Now tourists will be able to step off the pier and onto their fast boat. The issues at Sanur have been longstanding, with the fast boat operation regularly adapting to changing tides and weather conditions. Fast boat operators have often had to help lift passengers onto their boars during high tides or high waves, even changing the depurate point from Sunrise Beach to Le Mayeur Beach when the tide is too high. 

Ariana told reports, ‘Tourists will not get wet again if there is a high tide or big waves because everything has a one gate system’. He confirmed that fast boat operators in Sanur have all completed a trial run at using the pier, and he shared that by the 7th of November, they were 80% ready for the new system to come into play. 

Other changes at Sanur also include the fast boat ticketing systems. Now all tickets must be bought online in advance, although this isn’t entirely new. The majority of travelers have chosen to buy tickets online for the last few years. Ariana said, ‘All ticket sales are done online. Later each passenger will get a boarding pass’ that they will scan or have checked by a staff member before boarding the boat.

The project has been nearly three years in the making and has received a monumental amount of funding. In 2020 the project launched with a budget of IDR 19 billion, by the end of 2021, IDR 100 billion had been spent.

In 2022 this totaled IDR 150 billion to the point of opening for operation this week. In 2023 a further IDR 87.79 billion will be spent on other developments. By the time the second development phase is completed, the Sanur Pier will be able to accommodate 26 fast boats. 

All this development will streamline the operation at Sanur, enabling more vessels to operate more regularly. This will bring more tourists to the outlying Nusa and Gili Islands for day trips and longer stays. This helps diversify Bali’s tourism offering and support more local community economies. 

Bali is putting serious investment behind maritime tourism and the development of docklands and harbors. Currently, Benoa Harbour is undergoing a multi-million dollar expansion to enable the area to welcome large cruise liners. Cruise travel has officially returned to Bali, with two small cruises coming into the dock last week. Though on a quick one-day turnaround, the vessels from Australia and Norway are the first of many voyages set to arrive in Bali in the next 12 months. 

The redevelopment at Benoa Habor will be known as the Bali Maritime Tourism Hub. The development is partially funded by the Indonesian government and is being delivered by the private company Pelindo. The development will include a yacht marina, yacht club, theme park, and water sports facility, as well as a much larger port for international cruise liners and super yachts.