West Bali National Park Opens Again, Tourists Start Coming

BULELENG - The West Bali National Park (TNBB) areas in Buleleng and Jembrana, Bali have reopened after being closed due to an emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM.)

"It has been open since September 14 and closed since July 3, 2021," said Head of the TNBB Center, Agus Ngurah Krisna, when contacted, Thursday, September 30.

However, there have not been many local tourist visits to TNNB which has a lot of wildlife including deer and Bali starlings.

Domestic tourist visits per day reach 10 to 20 people. However, on weekends the number of tourists reaches 70 people.

Krisna said the number was far compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. From records per year, local and foreign tourist visits can reach 50-60 thousand people.

"Before the COVID-19 pandemic one year it was around 50-60 thousand. That was a combination of foreign and domestic," said Krisna.

Of course, the minimal level of visits has an impact on revenue from falling ticket sales.

"That was before the pandemic was half a billion (IDR 500 million) and was IDR 8 billion. Finally, in 2020, IDR 1 billion was the state tax revenue. Now it is still very low at IDR 200 and IDR 300 million," said Krisna.

But he hopes that the opening of TNNB can revive the economy of tourism actors. TNNB is currently still limiting the number of visits to a maximum of 30 percent.

"Hopefully, tourism actors and the surrounding community can get back their income from tourism," said Krisna.