Indonesia will begin welcoming tourists from today, Monday March 7, with Visa-on-Arrival and quarantine-free entry for travellers from 23 countries.
The reinstatement of the Visa-on-Arrival program and quarantine-free travel to Bali is now available a week earlier than expected following representations to the Indonesian government late last week by Bali Governor Wayan Koster and the minister responsible for overseeing the government’s Coronavirus response in Java and Bali, Luhut Pandjaitan.
It is believed that rapidly decreasing case numbers of the highly-infectious Omicron variant across Indonesia, coupled with high vaccination rates on the popular tourist island have precipitated the announcement.
Balinese Governor Koster also confirmed that of the nearly 2000 tourists that have arrived in Bali since early February, only six foreigners and one Indonesian citizen have tested covid-positive on arrival.
Under the quarantine-free travel arrangement, travellers will still need to show proof of vaccination on arrival and provide a negative PCR test obtained prior to departure.
In addition to these standard requirements, all new arrivals will have to show they have booked four nights accomodation and have health insurance (usually provided as part of the hotel booking) to cover them in the event of covid infection post-arrival. All travellers will also need to take a PCR test on day one and day three of their stay but will be free to travel anywhere on the island once their first test returns a negative result.
Once returning a second negative result on day three, travellers will be free to travel to other parts of Indonesia.
The 23 countries that are able to travel under the quarantine-free arrangement are (in alphabetical order), Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam.
Source – Bali Sun, Balipost.com