Bali governor pushes for reduction in mandatory quarantine
The governor of the resort island of Bali is urging the Indonesian government to reduce quarantine time for international arrivals. TTR Weekly reports that Bali currently has a 2-night quarantine in effect, but Governor I Wayan Koster says it’s putting tourists off coming. He wants to see it reduced to 1 night, until international visitors get the results of their Covid-19 test, when he says they should then be free to explore other tourist parts of the island.
Thailand recently reduced quarantine to just 1 night for vaccinated arrivals from 63 approved countries. Yesterday, Cambodia lifted all quarantine requirements for vaccinated international visitors. Bali’s governor doesn’t see the need for any quarantine if arrivals are fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19, but is prepared to compromise.
“As long as our visitors are fully vaccinated and test negative upon their arrival, I don’t think quarantine is still necessary. But I’ll propose to the central government to reduce the quarantine time to just 1 day.”
Koster also addressed 15 ambassador candidates at the governor’s office, urging them to promote Bali as a tourism destination to help the economy to recover.
“I kindly ask all the new ambassadors to help us promote our tourism as part of the effort to revive Bali’s tourism as well as the economy.”
According to the TTR Weekly report, the Indonesian government has previously said it expects around 20,000 foreign arrivals to visit Bali this month, most of them coming from Japan on Garuda flights.
In related news, the provincial government has warned Bali nightclubs to refrain from hosting large-scale parties during the island’s partial lockdown. Hotels planning to hold weddings and other large events have also been denied permission to do so.
SOURCE: TTR Weekly
