Bali’s deputy governor today said that a “free COVID corridor” program for tourists from China is being proposed to the central government, in what appears to be part of the latest idea to speed up recovery for the province’s battered tourism industry.
In an interview with CNBC Indonesia, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, also known as Cok Ace, said that officials in Bali have moved to propose a number of programs in order to attract more tourists once the COVID-19 situation improves.
The “free COVID corridor” plan, Cok Ace says, comes after seeing the mass vaccination drive in China. According to a report from Bloomberg, the country has administered more than 1 million coronavirus vaccines by Dec. 19, and had announced plans of distributing more.
“So we’re asking for the central government to prioritize vaccines for Bali businesses so that we can attract Chinese tourists to Bali,” Cok Ace said.
Other potential plans in the mix include a potential work or study from Bali campaign, which Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno first promoted last month. With more and more people growing fatigued by the pandemic, Cok Ace noted how some are considering moving temporarily to Bali while they are able to work or study remotely.
Parts of Java and Bali are set to impose a new set of COVID-19 restrictions tomorrow, replacing the Enforcement of Restrictions on Public Activities (PPKM) partial lockdown protocol with “Micro” PPKM, which contains essentially the same restrictions but with enforcement duties handed down to the neighborhood unit (RT) level.
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