By Sultan Anshori and Orathai Siring
BALI, Indonesia / Bangkok (Reuters) – The rise of coronavirus infections in 100 days of locally transmitted cases in the Indonesian holiday island of Bali and Thailand has further hurt Southeast Asian hopes of reviving important tourism industries.
Plans to reopen Bali to foreign tourists from September have been postponed indefinitely, while a cautious reopening of Thailand’s island of Phuket has come under suspicion.
In an effort to encourage local tourism industries, some Southeast Asian countries are considering “travel bubbles” with others as a way to revive the industry.
Bali initially had better health crisis weather than other parts of Indonesia, which has suffered the largest death toll ever in Southeast Asia. But in late July cases of coronavirus have since opened its borders to domestic tourism.
An epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, Dr.
Ketut Surjaya, head of Bali’s health agency, said there was no blame for the spike in local tourism cases, while others saw Bali’s experience as a warning of the dangers of reopening borders immediately.
Epidemiologists and public health experts said the arrival of tourists in Bali not only infected other parts of Indonesia, but also highlighted the country’s shortcomings in tackling the epidemic, i.e. lack of testing and agreement.
Public health experts also said that another possible contributing factor was the advent of a more infectious mutation of the virus, known as D614G.
There are 196 coronavirus cases on record in Bali on Friday, the fifth consecutive daily record. The number of daily cases on holiday Island has nearly tripled in the last six weeks, while deaths have doubled to 116 during that period.
Kamil, the owner of a Bali souvenir shop, which is common in Indonesia by the same name, says he still doesn’t do much business but he tried not to get too stressed.
He said, ‘I leave it to God because we cannot predict the future.’ “All we can do now is run the business according to the health protocol.”
Economic collapse
The second quarter saw the first quarter of the Indonesian economy shrink in two decades – with Bali’s economy shrinking by about 11% compared to the rest of the country.
Thailand, where foreign visitors spent more than 11% of GDP last year, despite being better managed by the epidemic, has been hit hardest by a decline in tourism – even the biggest deal since the Asian financial crisis in the second quarter.
With new daily coronavirus cases on the rise in parts of Asia, the country has postponed plans for “travel bubble” agreements with select countries.
The reopening of Phuket to foreign tourists is likely to be delayed after the planned start date of October, 2011, said Youths Supsorne, governor of the official Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Uthask told Reuters he hoped it would still start during the winter in Europe – Thailand’s tourist high season.
After initially clearing itself of the virus, Vietnam’s domestic tourism reopened in July, when a new outbreak broke out in the resort town of Denang, forcing it to go under strict lockout, which was lifted only on Monday.
Back in Indonesia, Kamil said he would stay positive as long as his shop remained open.
“Maybe there will be a customer,” he said.
(Additional report by Usst Gustinos B ડાo da Costa in Jakarta and James Pearson in Hanoi; Written by Kate Lamb; Edited by Ana Nicolasi da Costa)
