Another important step towards the re-opening of Bali is hopefully coming soon

During a visit to Bali, coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut B Pandjaitan has announced the plan, to re-introduce the visa on arrival (VoA). Until now, all travellers need a B211A Visa to enter Indonesia. This Visa Type still requires a company or travel agency to sponsor the traveller which led to higher costs and increase of administration and a more complex application process.  

The minister has not specified when this switch could happen.

Since March 2020 the government of Indonesia has put the Visa on Arrival and the free-visa entry for more than 160 countries on hold. This step, in addition to several other travel restrictions such as mandatory quarantine, led to a complete stop of the tourism industry.

Since then, many businesses had to close. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their source of income overnight. Not only employees who worked in hotels and restaurants lost their jobs, thousands of self-employed drivers suddenly had no more clients, producers of artwork had no more orders coming in, farmers had no more buyers of their fruits and vegetables, and villages no more tourists visiting their attractions and temples.   

The Visa on Arrival was for a few decades the main Visa to enter Indonesia for many nationalities, before the free-visa entry for 160 countries was introduced. The process was simple. Travellers arrive at the airport and purchase a sticker for USD35 at a counter in the arrival hall. The immigration officer who checks the passport simply puts this sticker into the passport and stamped it indicating the day of arrival. With that Visa travellers could stay up to 30 days. A VoA could also be extended for another 30 days at the local immigration office.

Bapak Luhut further said, that they will also look into ending the mandatory quarantine after he discussed with the local government the situations in the hospitals. “Well, if this is really ready, we might speed up the process. We discussed earlier with the Governor, we are all integrated, then we will report the decision from the President on Monday when we want to open Bali without quarantine,” said Luhut.

This comes just weeks after the local government, the airport authorities and the participating hotels have implemented the quarantine bubble. The quarantine is, beside the current Visa Regulation the second major hurdle for tourists who wish to visit Bali. So if all goes well, also the quarantine will be scrapped.

The Balinese and of course everybody even just remotely related to the hospitality industry hope, that these steps will come soon and that we can finally say, “Bali is open”. Because, until now, the hurdles for travellers are still immense and understandably frustrating.

Of course, the Indonesian government will monitor the COVID situation and keep adjusting regulations accordingly. Opening a country for tourism is still risky, because nobody knows for sure, how it will turn out, when hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists return to the island going to hotels, restaurants, spas and clubs. Before the pandemic, Bali welcomed around 6mio foreign tourists a year.

Current quarantine regulations

3 doses (boosted) – 3×24 hours quarantine (2 nights)

2 doses – 5×24 hours quarantine (4 nights)

1 dose – 7×24 hours quarantine (6 nights)