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JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST / ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – The world-renowned resort island of Bali is ready to receive international tourists before Christmas, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
The UN’s WTO Director for Asia and the Pacific, Harry Hwang, who led a delegation to Bali for an on-site assessment, said his team had seen first-hand the implementation of health and safety measures designed by the Indonesian government and Bali administration to prepare for reopening. of the island for international tourists.
“I am extremely happy to see Indonesia and Bali. You are ready to open for tourism soon, or next year. I would not be surprised if the government announced that Bali is open before Christmas,” Hwang told reporters in Nusa Dua . on Thursday (December 10).
The delegation was in Bali this week to organize a capacity-building workshop on the resumption of international tourism, the first of its kind in Asia. The team also visited Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport and various tourist destinations.
“The standards and the security protocol, I found them excellent, if not the best out there,” he said. “I hope that our collaboration with the Indonesian government can be a good example from which neighboring countries, other countries in Asia, can learn.”
Relying heavily on tourism, Bali has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. About 60 percent of its gross regional product comes from tourism, and under normal circumstances the island attracts more than 10 million visitors a year, most of whom are foreigners.
The island’s economy contracted 10.98 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, as thousands of people in the tourism sector lost their jobs. Bali lost an estimated 48.5 trillion rupees (S $ 4.4 billion) in tourism revenue between March and July, according to data from the Bali Tourism Agency.
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