Bali to welcome domestic tourists from July 31

Bali’s provincial government has announced plans to open the island to tourism for domestic Indonesian tourists from July 31.

The plan will be executed as long as Bali’s reopening scheme for local residents, starting July 9, runs effectively. Tourist attractions will be selectively opened to avoid new sources of virus transmission, says Indonesia Expat in a report.

The Indonesian island of Bali where 70% of the population depend on tourism, has seen extensive jobs losses since closing its borders in April. The economic impact so far has been greater than that of the Bali bombings of 2002, with losses of around 9.7 trillion rupiah (about £551.3 million) a month, according to an article in The Conversation.

Bali recovered swiftly in the wake of past crises, both natural and man-made, including the Gulf War (1990), a cholera outbreak (1995), SARS (2003) and bird flu (2007).

But this time, it could be different. A different approach may now be needed to save the tourism industry – and to make sure its benefits are more evenly spread. “We believe that now is the time to adjust the model in Bali away from surf, parties, and yoga towards rural villages with high poverty rates across the island (especially the underdeveloped north-east),” says the article in The Conversation.

To do this, government support is required to build small scale tourism that will provide new livelihoods. This might include everything from dolphin watching and snorkelling trips, to food tourism and “experience tourism” focused on traditional fishing and farming, the article says.