4 January 2021

The holiday is over, most of the offices and schools in Indonesia start their first day in 2021, today. Although Bali authority has enacted strict entry requirements at Bali Airport by making it compulsory for the visitors to have a negative result of PCR – Swab Test, which is very expensive. Still, it doesn’t seem to work on changing many people’s intention to spend year-end holidays at the island of gods.

Ngurah Rai International Airport recorded increasing domestic tourists’ arrivals during the Christmas and New Year 2021 holidays to 96,987 people from 18 to 31 December 2020. The peak of this year holiday season was on 24 December, with 10.327 numbers of arrivals.

The number of tourists coming through Sea Port at Gilimanuk has decreased by 90% compared to year-end holiday period in 2019. There are only about 21,000 of domestic travellers passengers during the holiday season. 

Some of the tourists attractions reported a significant raise on numbers of visitors. More than 5000 tourists visited Tanah Lot temple. The Manager of Ulun Danu Beratan Wayan Mustika also shared similar good news; 2000 tourists visited the lake-temple on 1 January 2021. This number also increased dramatically compared to normal days which only reached 150 – 300 people per weekday and 450 people during the weekend.

Even though the number of visits has increased, tourists’ authority still implementing the Covid-19 protocols strictly. Advice to always wear masks, keep social-distancing and wash hand regularly are announced through loudspeakers every 15 minutes.

Bali Covid-19 Task Force and the national army and police were on stand-by during Christmas and new year eve on several points like beaches, main streets, and touristic areas. The authority would disband forcefully large numbers of gathering and the violation of the governor decree which restricted anyone from consuming alcohol, lit up fireworks, and went-out after eleven pm (Bali time). No major violations were reported, only a few incidents in Denpasar and Canggu, currently under investigation by the authority.

The latest figure of Covid-19 Per Sunday (3/1), there were 119 new infections in Bali, which make total cases on the island 18.130. New recoveries at 78, in total 16.439 with two recent death was reported, in total 531. While in Indonesia, there were 6.877 of new cases which make total cases in the country 765.350. Recent recoveries at 6.419, in total 631.937. New deaths at 179, and in total 22.734.