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BALI, Indonesia / BANGKOK (Reuters) – A surge in coronavirus infections on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali and Thailand’s first case of local transmission in 100 days have dealt further blows to Southeast Asia’s hopes of reviving vital industries. of tourism.
Plans to reopen Bali to foreign tourists from September have been indefinitely postponed, while Thailand’s proposal for the cautious reopening of the island of Phuket has been called into question.
In addition to trying to encourage domestic tourism industries, some Southeast Asian countries have been considering “travel bubbles” along with others as a way to revive businesses.
Bali initially appeared to withstand the health crisis better than other parts of Indonesia, which has suffered by far the highest death toll in Southeast Asia. But coronavirus cases have skyrocketed after it reopened its borders to domestic tourism in late July.
“The increase in domestic tourism is a major factor for the increase in cases in Bali,” said Dr. Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia.
While Ketut Suarjaya, director of Bali’s health agency, said domestic tourism was not to blame for the spike in cases, others see the Bali experience as a warning of the dangers of reopening the borders too soon.
Epidemiologists and public health experts said the arrival of tourists to Bali not only made infection from other parts of Indonesia more likely, but underscored the country’s shortcomings in tackling the pandemic, namely a lack of testing and contract tracking. .
Public health experts also said another likely contributing factor was the arrival of the virus’s most infectious mutation, known as D614G.
Bali recorded a record 196 coronavirus cases on Friday, the fifth consecutive daily record. Daily cases on the holiday island nearly tripled on average over the past six weeks, while the death count doubled to 116 during that period.
The owner of the Bali souvenir shop, Kamil, who only uses one name as is common in Indonesia, said he wasn’t doing much business yet but tried not to get too stressed.
“I leave it to God because we cannot predict the future,” he said. “All we can do now is run the business according to health protocols.”
ECONOMIC RESULT
Indonesia’s economy had its first quarterly contraction in more than two decades in the second quarter, and Bali’s economy contracted even more than the rest of the country by almost 11%.
Thailand, where foreign visitor spending accounted for more than 11% of GDP last year, has been further hit by the tourism collapse despite better managing the pandemic, also the one that has contracted the most since the Asian financial crisis. in the second trimester.
The country suspended plans for a “travel bubble” deal with selected countries in August as daily new cases of coronavirus rose in parts of Asia.
Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the official Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the cautious reopening of Phuket to foreign tourists would likely be delayed until after the scheduled start date of October 1.
Yuthasak told Reuters he expected it to still start during Europe’s winter, Thailand’s peak tourist season.
Vietnam’s local tourism reopening, after it was initially cleared of the virus, also took a hit when a new outbreak was discovered in the resort town of Danang in July, forcing it to undergo a strict lockdown that only lifted the Monday.
Back in Indonesia, Kamil said he was optimistic as long as his store remained open.
“Maybe there is a customer,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa in Jakarta and James Pearson in Hanoi; written by Kate Lamb; edited by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
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