Paradise awaits in Bali. Photo: Artem / pexels
The beautiful island of Bali is set to welcome back tourists today, 4 February, with reduced quarantine requirements.
Bali has long been a favoured destination for tourists from all over the world. The island, located in the Indonesian Archipelago, is known for its beautiful beaches, lush forests and plantations, exotic culture, delicious cuisine and beautiful temples.
Travellers enjoy Bali for a number of reasons. The 2010 movie Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts, who was depicted to be soul searching, travels to the island of Bali in her search for peace and fulfillment. Bali offers visa-free stays for up to 30 days as well as a highly favourable exchange rate for South Africans.
The exotic island of Bali has been off-limits to tourists for almost 2 years as Indonesia implemented restrictions designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus from tourist arrivals.
The lengthy restrictions decimated Bali’s tourism sector which is heavily reliant on overseas tourists. CNN reports that due to strict border control measures Bali went from receiving millions of international visitors to welcoming just 45 tourists in 2021. This is compared to around 6.2 million international arrivals in 2019 and 1.05 million in 2020.
After virtually no tourist arrivals in 2021 as a result of strict travel restrictions, the famous tourist destination will reopen to all international travellers from 4 February 2022, according to the coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Pandjaitan.
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Following in the footsteps of other countries that have changed their stance on the severity of the coronavirus and have begun to reopen to tourists, Bali will reopen its doors to overseas visitors this week. Vaccinated visitors will be allowed to enter the island.
The island will still impose quarantine requirements on visitors. Pandjaitan said that the quarantine period required for fully vaccinated travellers into Indonesia has been reduced from seven to five days, The Washington Post reports.
By: Lorne Philpot
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