First flight from Sydney to Bali arrived on the island on Friday before departing for Sydney via Jakarta, bringing the airline’s two-year absence to an end.
61 passengers, including 31 Australians, boarded the plane that flew from Sydney to Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport. After the epidemic forced Indonesia to seal its borders in 2020, this is the first direct flight from Australian land since then.
As soon as they arrived in Bali, travellers were subjected to PCR testing at the airport before being transported to their respective hotels for a three-night quarantine, or “warm-up vacation,” as the administration likes to refer to it.
It permits vacationers to walk throughout the resort rather than being restricted to their rooms as a result of this limitation.
The return of short-term visitors from outside has been delayed by Bali’s very rigorous entrance policy, especially when compared to comparable Asian locations where most COVID-19 restrictions have been repealed.
Tourists will be able to freely move about the resort rather than being confined to their rooms as a result of the limitation.
Indonesian Consul General in Sydney Vedi Kurnia Buana expressed gratitude for the gesture, saying, “The Indonesian government much appreciates it since they still want to go on holiday to Bali despite the present economic situation.”
Despite the fact that there is still a 3-day quarantine rule, they continue to go [to the island].”
On the other hand, starting on Monday, the hotel quarantine in Bali will be abolished, and visas on arrival will be accessible to all international visitors once again.
A new “island bubble” initiative, which will abolish quarantine regulations for the whole country of Indonesia on April 1, is behind the move.
According to Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana, the head of the Bali tourist board, “the issue with quarantine will now be addressed with the island bubble.”
For those who want to go outside of Bali, they must first spend at least three nights on the island before being granted permission to do so.
In the midst of a fiercely disputed tourist business in the area, neighboring Southeast Asian nations are scrambling to reopen and regain a portion of Bali’s lucrative tourism industry.