Indonesia will be welcoming vaccinated tourists in July.
According to Bangkok Post, Indonesia aims to welcome back foreign tourists to the resort islands of Bali, Bintan and Batam by the end of July, with a plan to speed up vaccinations in those areas to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Central to Indonesia’s plan will be vaccine supply, which is expected to fall short this month due to export curbs in producing countries. Shots are currently prioritised for the elderly and frontline workers in Covid hotspots such as Jakarta, but a new directive from President Joko Widodo aims to include Bali in the list, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said.
“We already have close to 60,000 to 70,000 vaccinators ready in Bali. Once we have the supply, the Health Minister said we can complete the task in two to three months, taking us to mid- or end-July,” for the reopening, said Uno.
At least 2 million residents would have to have been vaccinated for the programme to start, he said.
Other tourist sites being considered for the travel corridor programme include Yogyakarta, Belitung Island and Lake Toba in Sumatra, Borobudur Temple in Central Java, Labuan Bajo fishing town in eastern Indonesia, and Likupang in Sulawesi, which caters to Chinese tourists. Any decision to reopen more areas will be driven by data on how well infection has been contained, said Uno.
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Bangkok Post mentions, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy aims to inoculate as many as 3 million people in Bali and about 70,000 in Batam and Bintan to achieve herd immunity in the islands before they are reopened to foreign visitors.
Indonesia has inoculated over 10.6 million people so far, the most in Southeast Asia. This has helped halve the number of new infections to an average of about 5,000 a day in April from nearly 11,000 at the start of the year.
As it gradually reopens more sectors, the country aims to climb out of its recession and grow gross domestic product by 4.5% to 5.3% this year. Tourism contributed over 4% of Indonesia’s GDP in 2017 and accounted for more than 10% of total employment, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The target is for the sector to account for 5-6% of GDP this year and gradually increase it to 10-12% by 2025, Uno said.
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