Batam Ready To Implement Travel Bubble With Singapore

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BATAM - The Batam City Government, Riau Islands, said it was ready to impose a travel bubble with Singapore, in line with the decline in the number of COVID-19 in the last three months and the immune level reaching 70 percent.

"This indicates that we are very ready to implement a travel bubble, but we must be vigilant," said Deputy Mayor of Batam, Amsakar Achmad, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, November 10.

He is optimistic about handling COVID-19 in Batam City. Moreover, vaccination has reached 97.8 percent of the target population, relatively the highest in Indonesia.

The achievement of Riau Islands Province, which got the first rank for vaccination in Indonesia outside of Java and Bali, is the result of hard work in Batam, which has the largest population in the archipelago province.

Therefore, Batam is ready if the government wants to implement a tourism travel bubble with Singapore, as has been planned since last year.

The Deputy Mayor stated that Batam is a domestic and foreign tourist destination. In 2019, the number of foreign tourists visiting Batam was recorded at 1,947,943 visits.

The contribution of local revenue from the tourism sector is also relatively large, so that when the pandemic is over, tourism is expected to return to glory.

"COVID-19 is complete, the development of Hang Nadim (International Airport) is complete, Batam is even more stretched," he said.

Meanwhile, Head of the Batam City Culture and Tourism Office Ardiwinata believes Batam is ready for tourists to visit.

Currently, all tourism, cultural, and creative economy actors have received vaccines, in order to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19 and at the same time assure tourists that Batam is ready to welcome.