Bali wants to change mass tourism, here is how the island is rebuilding after strict Covid closures
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Loading... - Alex Pinyin
- 05 Aug 2022
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On a golden Sunday morning at the start of Bali’s dry season, a small group of tourists met at Littletalks Ubud, a cosy library café looking out over an 8th-century Hindu temple surrounded by coconut palms, banyan trees and frangipanis.
They were there to meet senior tour guide, I Nyoman Windia, and trainee guide, Ni Wayan Khana Putri Pertiwi, employees of a new historical walking tour company, Ubud Story Walks.
Windia joked that after two years of minimal work during the pandemic, one of the reasons he joined the company was so he could regain his fitness on the job. As he ambled along a sidewalk in his sarong and flip-flops, a passing motorcyclist called out to him. “A friend,” Windia said. “He’s happy to see me with guests again.”
After six months of gradually relaxing international arrival regulations – including the removal of quarantine – Indonesia resumed its visa on arrival in early March. The following month, 66,685 foreigners walked through the gates of Bali’s international airport. Only nine did so in April last year.
Before the global halt in travel, the Indonesian island received 6.3 million international tourists in 2019. According to the nation’s central statistics agency, 55 percent of Bali’s economy was drawn from tourism and hospitality that year, although some have argued that with a large informal sector, this figure could be as high as 80 per cent. After more than half a century as one of the world’s top holiday destinations, tourism’s economic roots run deep. Read More...
