Uno Sandiaga Says Bali Needs Tourists, According To Luhut: Emergency PPKM Does Not Allow The Island Of The Gods To Open For Foreign Tourists

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government has officially implemented an emergency Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) for the Java and Bali regions from July 3 to 20, 2021. With the implementation of these restrictions, Bali automatically cancels opening entrances for foreign tourists.

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment as well as the Coordinator of the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that currently the government's focus is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in the PPKM rules there is a closure of tourist attractions.

Regarding the plan to open tourism in Bali for foreign tourists, Luhut said everyone would already know the answer. The plan, he said, could not be realized amid the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country.

"If Bali is the answer, you can answer it yourself, it is impossible to open again because there is this Delta (new variant of COVID-19)," he said in a virtual press conference, Thursday, July 1.

Luhut said currently focusing on reducing the spike in COVID-19 cases through the Emergency PPKM. The implementation of emergency PPKM with a target of reducing the addition of confirmed cases to more than 10,000 cases per day.

The coverage of the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM area is 48 regencies/cities with an assessment of the pandemic situation at level 4 and 74 regencies/cities with an assessment of the pandemic situation at level 3 in Java and Bali.

"We don't think about it anymore, now we are thinking, how to reduce, inject as much as possible, (implement) health protocols. That's what we are doing now," he said.

As is known, cases of COVID-19 in the country have continued to increase in recent times. On this day, Thursday, July 1st, daily cases made up for 24,836. This number is the highest record addition of cases since March 2, 2020. The cumulative cases reached 2,203,108.

Bali needs help

Previously, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno revealed that the Island of the Gods was in need of tourist assistance. In fact, the pace of Bali's economy is predicted to still experience a deep contraction in the second quarter of 2021 at the level of 6 percent to 8 percent.

"Bali is in dire need of tourists. Its economy contracted 12 percent in the third quarter of 2020, minus 12 percent in the fourth quarter, minus 9 percent in the first quarter of this year. I received information that the second quarter of 2021 might be minus 6 to 8 percent. So this is very very very sad. Bali continues to experience contractions," he said in a virtual press conference, Tuesday, June 22.

As is known, the sharp decline in Bali's economy during the pandemic was caused by the drop in tourist arrivals, both foreign and domestic. Bali is one of the provinces whose economy depends on tourism and the creative economy.

When viewed from the arrival gate at Ngurah Rai international airport, Bali, there was a decline in growth of up to 99.97 percent for foreign tourists until April 23, 2021. Where there were only 348 visits, this was much lower than the same period in 2020 with 1.21 million visit.

Meanwhile, domestic visits turned out to be the same, where the growth of domestic tourism was minus 57.97 percent with visits of 417,000 people until 23 April 2021, compared to 993,000 visits on 23 April 2020.

Therefore, said Sandiaga, to support tourism in Bali again, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has launched a number of programs ranging from work from Bali to COVID-19 vaccine tour packages.

Furthermore, Sandiaga said for tourists this vaccine will be opened for domestic tourists first. However, it is also possible for foreign tourists.

"So it's like our brothers who need the most are given priority. Based on the direction from the leadership that Bali is the first destination (vaccine tourism). But it doesn't rule out other destinations," he said.