Expansion of Post-COVID Travel Corridor Discussed In Indonesia

BALI, Indonesia, March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, organized a ministerial coordination meeting recently regarding the expansion of the travel corridor arrangement for the tourism and creative economy sector, to allow foreign tourists back into the country.

The return of tourists is expected to be in line with the economic recovery, especially for areas relying on the tourism and creative economy such as Bali Province.

“This is a form of the MOTCE’s commitment to follow up the guidance of the President Joko Widodo, on how Bali can prepare the opening of its tourism for foreign tourists on mid-June or July this year with various requirements,” said Sandiaga after the meeting, at the Bali Tourism Polytechnic, in Nusa Dua.

Earlier, the Bali Provincial Government decided a pilot project in three areas  determined as green zones; namely Ubud in Gianyar Regency, Sanur in Denpasar City and ITDC Nusa Dua in Badung Regency.

“We discussed it with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Representatives of the relevant Ministries/Agencies, all of whom have given us input and we have agreed that we will begin the process of finalizing our preparations in the travel corridor arrangement concept. We will monitor and evaluate this every two weeks and conduct a coordination to report it to the President and make a decision,” Sandiaga explained.

The evaluation starts from the vaccination rate which continues to improve, monitoring of compliance with health protocols, as well as the readiness of ministries/agencies to support this plan, e-Visa preparation from immigration, airport readiness prepared by the Ministry of SOEs, as well as upgrading of PCR laboratories and so on.

“We will carry out the trial at the soonest. We have about three months of preparation, there must be a simulation and maybe a trial or a pilot project. There will be a charter flight and we will really monitor it,” Sandiaga added.

The Minister said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take the lead in the determination of which nationalities could come in.