Bali Is Ready To Welcome International Tourists

Deputy Governor of Bali Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati/ Antara

DENPASAR - Deputy Governor of Bali, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, emphasized that the local area is ready to welcome foreign tourists if tourism opens in the near future.

"Of course it is seen not only from internal factors, but also from various other supporting factors that allow the opening of Bali tourism to foreign tourists," said the Deputy Governor of Bali in a Kompas TV dialogue entitled "Bali Tourism Prepared to Open for Foreign Tourists" from Denpasar, reported by Antara, Sunday, 26 September.

One of them, he continued, is that we will welcome the WSBK (World Superbike) grand event in Mandalika next November, as well as the G20 Summit which is planned to be held in 2022 in Bali.

"This event must be used as a momentum so that the world community can believe that the handling of COVID-19 in Bali has gone well," said the man who is also the chairman of PHRI Bali.

The Deputy Governor, who is usually called Cok Ace, also conveyed Bali's various achievements in tackling the spread of the COVID-19 virus on the Island of the Gods.

In terms of health, Bali has become one of the provinces with the highest vaccination achievement in Indonesia, which is almost 97 percent for the first vaccination and more than 73 percent for the second vaccination.

"The vaccination program will continue to be boosted so that this month or early next month, both the first and second doses of vaccines can be completed," he said. In addition, there are around 62 COVID-19 referral hospitals and 25 PCR laboratories with the ability to test more than 4,000 samples per year day. In addition, health workers, medicines and oxygen are also very adequate in Bali.

"The government has also prepared a 'grand design' scheme for foreign tourists in Bali which regulates tourist schemes starting from the arrival gate, testing, for those who are positive will be referred to the hospital, while those who are negative will continue their journey to quarantine hotels, travel schemes to departure to their country of origin, " he said.

Seeing the development of COVID-19 cases which has recently increased again in several countries, Cok Ace also said that it is possible to be selective in choosing the country of origin of foreign tourists.

"We have recorded several countries based on length of stay in Bali. There are about four countries, namely America, England, Germany and Russia, which on average stay in Bali for two weeks. But it also depends on regulations, therefore we must really prepare, " he said.

He added that current internal preparations really need to be accelerated in order to open Bali tourism, such as the provisions in Permenkumham No. 34 of 2021. The government must also prepare various scenarios to deal with the worst possibility.

"We have to prepare plan A, plan B and so on. Of course we don't want to be like other countries like Singapore, which initially wanted to make peace with COVID-19, but are now facing a bad situation again," he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Indonesian Tourism Intellectuals Association (ICPI) Azril Azahari said this was a very good momentum for the direction of Bali's tourism going forward.

He hopes that the Bali Provincial Government can take the opportunity and direct Bali tourism, one of which is medical tourism. This is considering one of the world's needs, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We can make a Hospitality program, namely hospitals (hospitals) are managed by hotels. This is very common to be done abroad," he said.

In addition, he also gave a thumbs up for the implementation of CHSE in Bali. Even though the implementation of health protocols is already high, he hopes the government and the public will not be careless if tourism is opened.